Actress Penélope Cruz just confessed that she needed another superstar’s help to win over her own children!
Dropping a hilarious truth bomb in a new interview with Sean Evans “Hot Ones”, the 52-year-old Oscar winner revealed that after meeting Grammy-winning musician Bad Bunny, her children “finally” think she is cool.
The actress admitted that her son Leo, 15, and daughter Luna, 12—whom she shares with husband Javier Bardem—were the ones who forced her to listen to Bad Bunny’s music in the first place.
“So, I was like, ‘These lyrics are not for you,'” Cruz joked of some of Bad Bunny’s mature lyrical content. “You know, we were trying to fight that for a while, but then I was like non-stop listening by myself.”
The family then went to see Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, in Puerto Rico at the launch of his historic 2025 “No Me Quiero Ir de Aqui” residency, where she and Bardem were special guests in the onstage VIP set.
Also read: Bad Bunny to headline 2026 Super Bowl halftime show
“I’ve already been five times. But the first one in Puerto Rico is when Benito came to me and asked me to go with him to introduce a song. And my kids came to me and said, ‘Mom, finally we can say you are cool. We can say you are a cool mother’,” Cruz said.
“Thank you Benito! It took me all these years,” she joked.
Cruz and Bardem, 57, got married in 2010, and the actress has been opened up about their parenting style. “It’s so easy to be manipulated, especially if you have a brain that is still forming,” she said in a 2024 interview of why her children do not have mobile phones.
On the work front, Bad Bunny rose to new heights of global success with his sixth solo studio album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” (I should’ve taken more photos), released on January 5, 2025. It is a love letter to his native Puerto Rico, brimming with references to the Caribbean island’s flora, fauna, and cultural traditions. The noteworthy album earned him three 2026 Grammys: for Album of the Year, Best Música Urbana, and Best Global Music Performance.
Shortly after his Grammys glory, Bad Bunny headlined the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show in February.
The Puerto Rican musician is currently on his Debí Tirar Más Fotos World Tour, and will next perform at the Plenitude Arena in Nanterre, France, near Paris, on July 4.