Kaley Cuoco Hates Being Called “Mama” By Other Adults

It’s not an exaggeration that when women become mothers, they suddenly stop being everything else that once identified them (student, friend, musician, athlete, etc.). They just become “mama.”

“Hey mama!” “You got this, mama!” “You are looking so good, mama!”

Surely, the newfound nickname is meant as a term of endearment, but for some, it’s just plain grating or insulting. The Big Bang Theory alum and actor Kayley Cuoco knows that exact feeling and resonates with the resentment that some moms may feel as their entire identity is suddenly centered around motherhood.

Cuoco sat down with Conan O’Brien and the rest of his team on the Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast and vented about being called “mama,” now that she’s welcomed her daughter, Matilda.

While chatting with the group about motherhood, Cuoco remarked how much she hated being addressed as “mama.”

“You know what I hate though … What I hate is how everyone now is like, ‘Hey, Mama!’” she said.

“What is that? I had a call on the way here and she was like, ‘How’s mom life?’ And I’m like, ‘It’s the same as it was 10-and-a-half months ago.’”

“I get this visceral, angry reaction. Like, ‘Hey, mama, you’re looking so good.’ I’m like, ‘What did I look like before?'” the actor continued.

“If they know you have a baby, then all of a sudden you’re ‘mama’ and you look good. But it’s different than just normal looking good,” she added.

The Flight Attendant star revealed to host Conan O’Brien that she had her assistant call a meeting during her last project to ask people to stop calling her “mama.”

“I started to really resent everybody,” she said, adding, “I couldn’t take it anymore.”

Cuoco welcomed Matilda in March 2023 with her boyfriend, actor Tom Pelphrey.

Now almost a year into parenthood, Cuoco has found her footing, unapologetically so. She recently shared with USA Today a parenting trait of hers that she simply does not give a rip if people “hate” her for it — allowing screen time.

“Some people are going to hate on me for that. Don’t care,” she told the publication. “My daughter’s seen every Disney movie that there is at this point, and she loves it!”

Kaley noted she’s been “cool” to watch the films alongside her daughter. “Some of them are so new that I’ve never even seen them. So I’m experiencing this whole thing with her,” she said.

Before having Matilda, Cuoco admitted that she was sort of winging it. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, she shared that she couldn’t be less interested in learning about the birth process.

“I have no plan and I’ve read zero books so that’s the type of mom I will be,” she told ET. “All the ways I’m not like a prepper. I’m just not that way. It’s gonna be great, I trust the process.”