Russia’s Putin opens up about grandchildren, appeals for family privacy during live TV show
Putin, who is divorced, has two daughters, Katerina and Maria, and is famously reluctant to discuss them or any aspect of his own personal life
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered a glimpse at his family life Thursday, confirming for the first time that he has grandchildren and saying he wants to keep them out of the spotlight so they can grow up “normally”.
Putin, who is divorced, has two daughters, Katerina and Maria, and is famously reluctant to discuss them or any aspect of his own personal life.
“I have grandchildren. They live normal lives,” Putin said during his annual marathon TV call-in with Russians, confirming a revelation from a series of interviews by US filmmaker Oliver Stone that have been airing in the US this week.
The 64-year-old Russian leader said that one grandchild was “already in preschool” and that “my second grandson was born recently”, which garnered applause in the studio.
But he said he did not want to identify them by name them in order to let them live ordinary lives.
“The thing is, I don’t want them to grow up like hereditary princes, I want them to grow up to be normal people.”