ESPRIT LIBRE // Press Archive

FORBES ON HIS FAMILY

Forbes On His Wife, Vanessa

"After a year-and-a-half, immigration said, 'Listen, honey, you're not a tourist. You're living here. Either marry him or go back to Italy.' So we got married, and we have a kid and houses, and we're very happy to be together." (SOD 12/20/05)

(on what he thinks is the least sexy thing about him) "[My wife, Vanessa] feels strongly about my farting in bed. I think it's perfectly natural; all men do it...at least, I do." (SOD 4/17/07)

"My wife is convinced that my blonde-haired, blue-eyed, very white son looks just like her, who has dark hair, brown eyes and olive skin. She's actually had photographs mailed to us from Italy to confirm that he's the spitting image of her when she was that age!" (SID 6/19/07)

(on meeting his future wife, Vanessa) "So I was having this little nervous breakdown, and living with a woman platonically. And in a drunken stupor, I described the perfect woman for me. My friend said, 'I know her: La Vanessa.' I said, 'You're kidding.' She said, 'No.' I said, 'Hook me up.' She did, and two nights later, we went to a club in Milan called Hollywood, and I was introduced to La Vanessa, the future mother of my children." (SID 9/25/07)

Forbes On His Daughter, Marina

(on raising his daughter Marina) "You're supposed to be grown-up, and I'm not. I'm more of a party organizer than a disciplinarian." (SID 12/6/05)

"I realized it was time to get out of L.A. when I was telling [Marina] to put a hat on or some stupid Daddy thing, and she flipped her hair and looked over her shoulder and said, 'Whatever, Daddy!' I just said, 'Noooooo!' I could already see the little collar turned up and the alligator on her shirt. I didn't want to turn into the epitome of everything I hate -- this pearly-white thing where she's like, 'How come I can't model when all my friends are modeling?' Model? You're 6! Skip rope! So I was like, 'You will not become this Valley, preppy little priss. We're going to New York!' It was like my version of sending her to a convent [laughs]." (SOD 12/20/05)

"My daughter goes to bilingual school. She goes to an Italian school. That's one of the big plusses of living in New York. There's a big Italian community -- Italian schools, Italian friends. Marina is in Italy right now and I just talked to her, and for the first time she actually talked to me in Italian. She usually won't. That's quite common when you teach kids another language. They'll listen, but then they always respond in their first language. I don't know why." (SOD 5/1/07)

"I'm going [to Italy] for a week and I'm going to take my daughter to Paris for one day. I tried to think of the most dramatic thing I could possibly come up with to do during the week. So, we're going to spend the day in Paris. She's got this fixation with the Mona Lisa, and I have this idea that I really want to have a cafe au lait underneath the Eiffel Tower and come home in the evening. (SOD 5/1/07)

"My daughter and my wife ritualistically clean her jewelry. And it's always been this thing that 'When Mommy's gone, this will all be yours.' Then it dawned on Marina, before we knew if it was going to be a boy or a girl, that if it was a daughter, she would have to split it with her sister! At which point she suddenly changed her mind about wanting a girl and said, 'I think a brother would be nice.'" (SID 6/19/07)

Forbes on His Son, Peter

"My wife is convinced that my blonde-haired, blue-eyed, very white son looks just like her, who has dark hair, brown eyes and olive skin. She's actually had photographs mailed to us from Italy to confirm that he's the spitting image of her when she was that age!" (SID 6/19/07)

(on Peter) "He will wait for you not to be looking, and then he'll run to the fridge, open it and climb in. 'Baby's gone.' He loves the fridge, and he locks himself in it. It's his favorite game. ... He doesn't just pull the plugs out and play with them. He loves to do what Daddy does, which is plug stuff in. So he unplugs it, plugs it back in, unplugs it, plugs it back in...he's going to have the Einstein hair when he sticks his fingers in a socket. Exciting times ahead!" (SID 1/28/08)

Forbes On Family in General

"I just decided that yes, I'm going to be a good daddy. I'm going to be a come-running-home-from-work-and-spend-time-with-my-kids daddy. I'm not going to be a go-to-the-bar-with-my-friends daddy. I'm going to be a find-dads-who-have-kids daddy and be friends with them. And their kids will be friends with my kids. And then they'll leave town." (SOD 5/1/07)

"Family is a wonderful thing. I want a big one." (SID 6/19/07)

"I have this image of being 68 years old, and living in a big house with the wifey. And we'll have little cottages for each one of our six or seven children's families in, like, a semi-circle around it. There will be the misfit child, the lawyer child, the doctor child, the gay or lesbian child and just all this family drama... That's what I want in my retirement." (SID 7/17/07)

(when asked to name the cutest celebrity offspring) "Mine are adorable. Why would anyone say someone else's kids?" (SOD 9/18/07)