Often overlooked single fathers deserve praise this Father’s Day
By Jeffery M. Leving
This Father’s Day I’d like to pay tribute to a certain segment of fathers that is often overlooked — single and divorced fathers who are raising their children.
We often hear about single and divorced mothers who raise their children and while their efforts are worthy of celebration, we do not often hear about fathers doing the same.
True, there are more single mothers in the United States versus single fathers raising their children, but I think it’s not an exaggeration to say that this group of men is too often overlooked.
I’d like to highlight a couple celebrities who are doing this for two reasons.
The first is that because they are celebrities, they can use their star power for good, to show that a father raising his children is not a rarity but just another variation of an American family.
The second reason I’m focusing on celebrities is to highlight my point that they have not gotten much deserved recognition for raising their children on their own. For example, the first celebrity I would like to highlight is the actor Liam Neeson.
Neeson is known for playing action heroes in movies like Taken and serious roles like Michael Collins in the film of the same name and Oscar Schindler in Schindler’s List. Most are not likely aware that since 2009, when his sons were 12 and 13 years old at the time, he raised them on his own after his wife (and the boys’ mother) Natasha Richardson died from injuries sustained in a skiing accident.
Neeson dedicated himself to his boys, prioritizing their well-being above all else. Like most parents of kids at that age, it was
reported that one of his biggest fears was that they would get involved with drugs. By all accounts, Neeson seems to have been very successful as a single father and his boys became upstanding men. One is pursuing a career in acting while the other is working in the fashion industry.
Another celebrity who raised his child mostly on his own is musician Lenny Kravitz. Following his divorce from actress Lisa Bonet, Kravitz took on the role of raising his daughter Zoë, who lived with him full-time beginning when she was 11. Zoë Kravitz is 36 and a successful actress and filmmaker.
While single mothers raising kids on their own still outnumber fathers doing the same, the numbers have increased a lot. As of 2021, 20% of single parents in the U.S. are single fathers, according to the United States Census Bureau. While that percentage is much smaller than the percentage of single mothers, the fact is that more than 3.5 million children are being raised by single father homes. That’s much higher than back in 1960, when only 1 percent of households with minor children in the United States were headed by a single father, according to the Pew Research Center.
The reason I highlighted celebrities is because the spotlight that is on them for their acting and singing successes can also shine on this overlooked segment of dads. In turn, that spotlight can give this segment of fatherhood more acceptance rather than being viewed as some sort of oddity — which, if the numbers keep moving in the same direction that they have over the last 60 years then a single father household will be viewed in much the same way a single mother household is viewed — as a fact of life.
Obviously it would be nice if all parents and children could stay together but we live in 2025, not some sitcom from the 1950s. It is important however that single parent households —whether a single mother household or single father household, carve out a place for the other parent. All children should have both their parents in their lives. Single father and single mother households should keep this in mind and do what they can to allow and foster only the best for their children.
As for the fathers who are raising their kids on their own, I wish them a Happy Father’s Day and also hope that other fathers can follow their lead and are not discouraged or kicked to the curb.
Attorney Jeffery M. Leving is the recipient of the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from the President of the United States in recognition of his 7,500 hours of service to this great nation. Leving has dedicated his career to safeguarding children and reuniting them with their fathers. Follow Jeffery M. Leving at dadsrights.com.
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
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