Sophie Turner: Navigating Motherhood and Career After Game of Thrones

Sophie Turner, now 29, has been reflecting on the profound changes in her life since becoming a mother in her early twenties while navigating the transition from her career-defining role in Game of Thrones. In a recent profile with The Guardian, Turner opened up about how motherhood and her acting hiatus intertwined at a pivotal moment in her life. “It just felt like the right break to focus on me because I’d been a character for so long,” she explained, describing her decision to step back from acting after the conclusion of the HBO fantasy series that made her a household name. While she cherished the time spent “nesting and being at home,” she also acknowledges that this period, coinciding with the COVID pandemic, created a significant gap in her professional trajectory. At just 24, Turner welcomed her first daughter Willa in 2020 with then-husband Joe Jonas, followed by their second daughter Delphine two years later. Though her marriage to Jonas ended in divorce in 2023, Turner’s journey as a mother continues to shape her perspective on life and work.

The transition back to acting after motherhood wasn’t seamless, as Turner candidly admits: “I’ve had to try to rebuild, in a way. You don’t realize how important momentum is in a career, and I stalled it a bit.” This honest assessment reveals the challenges many women face when balancing family formation with professional ambitions, particularly in the demanding entertainment industry. Despite these obstacles, Turner has successfully reignited her career, accumulating an impressive roster of new roles that showcase her versatility beyond the medieval fantasy world of Westeros. With her children now a bit older, she expresses relief at being able to focus on work without the pressure of fertility concerns: “It’s really nice. I’m not worrying about my biological clock and all that sort of stuff.” This sentiment highlights how having children relatively young has, in some ways, freed her to pursue career opportunities with renewed focus and determination.

Turner’s reflections on her Game of Thrones experience reveal both gratitude and the natural embarrassment that comes with growing up in the public eye. Having joined the cast as a teenager, she essentially learned her craft in front of millions of viewers—an experience she likens to learning to sing with every lesson broadcast worldwide. “I learned how to act on that set, and now I’m thinking, ‘That’s not how to do it.’ That’s not what I do these days. It’s very embarrassing,” she admitted with characteristic candor. This vulnerability extends to her ongoing battle with imposter syndrome, though she takes comfort in believing this is a universal experience among actors. The series, which aired from 2011 to 2019, not only shaped her acting abilities but also defined her early identity in the industry, with casting directors subsequently pigeonholing her into similar historical or fantasy roles of princesses who evolve from weakness to strength—a pattern that eerily mirrored her own character Sansa Stark’s development.

The aftermath of Game of Thrones left Turner at a crossroads, struggling to redefine herself beyond the role that had dominated her formative years. “After Game of Thrones finished, I didn’t know what was up and what was down. I needed to discover who I was,” she revealed, articulating the disorientation that often follows massive success, particularly for young performers. This period of self-discovery coincided with major personal milestones—meeting Jonas in 2016 at the height of the show’s popularity, falling in love, marriage, and eventually motherhood. These real-life experiences have enriched her approach to acting, giving her authentic emotional references that were previously inaccessible. “A really important part of being an actor is to live a life so you have experiences to draw on,” she explained, recalling how she once had to portray being in love before experiencing it firsthand. “I remember having to act being in love before I’d ever been in love. I thought, ‘OK, I guess I’ll just do this.’ And then suddenly, when I’d been in love for the first time, then I knew the feeling.”

The complexities of balancing motherhood with a revitalized acting career create an emotional tug-of-war that Turner doesn’t shy away from discussing. In a recent interview with Net-a-Porter’s Porter, she spoke candidly about the perpetual “mom guilt” that accompanies her professional commitments: “The mum guilt is there forever. I work all week and then, on the weekends, I’ll spend all day with my kids each day. But if I go out for lunch with a friend, I will run back home because my heart is sinking that I’ve left them.” This raw admission resonates with working mothers everywhere who struggle with similar feelings, regardless of profession or status. Despite these challenges, Turner has cultivated a new rhythm that accommodates both her parental responsibilities and artistic ambitions, dedicating weekdays to work and weekends entirely to her daughters, though even brief separations trigger an emotional response that speaks to the depth of her maternal bond.

As Turner continues to evolve both personally and professionally, her journey represents the multifaceted experience of many young women navigating career interruptions, motherhood, relationship changes, and professional reinvention. Having emerged from the shadow of Sansa Stark, she now approaches roles with the enriched perspective that comes from lived experience—as a woman who has loved, lost, created life, and rediscovered her passion for her craft. While Game of Thrones may have launched her into stardom as a teenager, it’s clear that Sophie Turner’s most compelling role is the one she’s currently writing for herself: as an actress with renewed purpose, a devoted mother to her daughters, and a woman who has found her voice beyond the character that introduced her to the world. Her story offers an intimate glimpse into the universal challenges of balancing personal fulfillment with professional ambition, proving that even for those who grew up in the spotlight, the journey of self-discovery is ongoing and deeply human.