Jenny Mollen is facing backlash after posting photos of herself lying intertwined on a bed with her 12-year-old son, Sid. The author, actor and social media personality shared images that showed their faces pressed close together and their arms and legs wrapped around one another, and some followers said the post crossed a line.
The reaction is landing now because Mollen drew attention to the post just months after she and Jason Biggs announced their separation in May, after 18 years of marriage. The former couple share two sons, Sid, 12, and Lazlo, 8, and have said they remain committed to co-parenting, a detail that has only sharpened the scrutiny around what she chose to share publicly.
Mollen did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but she appeared to address the criticism in a series of Instagram Stories. In one, she said she was being treated differently because she is separated and no longer protected by marriage, and she called it “absolutely jaw-dropping” that a photo of her hugging her 12-year-old child was being ridiculed.
The dispute has become less about whether a parent and child can show affection and more about what happens when that moment is posted for a large audience. Dr. Deborah Gilboa said it is “not at all unhealthy or immoral” to cuddle, hug, wrestle or be physically close to a teenage child, and said a single image rarely tells the full story of a parent-child relationship. But she also said the sharper question is what that image becomes once it circulates online, where viewers are no longer seeing a private moment but interpreting it through their own sense of boundaries.
That is where the backlash has taken hold. Some commenters called the post inappropriate and disgusting, while Gilboa said strong reactions may reflect society’s heightened sensitivity around parent-child boundaries. She said the issue is not proof of an unhealthy relationship, but the responsibility that comes with deciding how much of family life should be shared with strangers. For Mollen, the unanswered question is whether she will leave the post up and keep talking, or let the Instagram Stories stand as her full response.
