All About Jason Bateman's Parents, Kent and Victoria Bateman
All About Jason Bateman's Parents, Kent and Victoria Bateman
Emily WeaverMon, March 2, 2026 at 12:30 AM UTC
0
Jason Bateman ; Jason Bateman and his motherCredit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty; Ed Geller/Globe Photos/ZUMAPRESS.com -
Kent and Victoria Bateman welcomed daughter Justine in 1966 and son Jason in 1969
Both Justine and Jason went on to become child actors
Jason has said that their household had "times of high function and times of dysfunction"
Kent and Victoria Bateman raised two child actors.
The couple married in 1965 and welcomed two children: Justine Bateman in 1966, followed by Jason Bateman in 1969. By the age of 10, Jason and his family had made the cross-country move from New York to Los Angeles — and the sibling duo quickly made a name for themselves in Hollywood.
In the 1980s, Justine landed a lead role on the popular series Family Ties. Meanwhile, Jason catapulted to fame for his performances on Little House on the Prairie, Silver Spoons and It’s Your Move.
Soon enough, the two were supporting their family, and Kent and Victoria began managing both Jason and Justine. However, this shifted the parent-child dynamic, as Jason said in a December 2025 interview with Esquire. “My sister and I had a peer relationship with our parents,” he said.
Speaking with the Los Angeles Times in July 2017, Jason described their family household as “nontraditional,” noting that “there were times of high function and times of dysfunction.”
Here’s everything to know about Jason Bateman’s parents, Kent Bateman and Victoria Bateman.
Victoria is from the United Kingdom
Victoria, Jason, Justine and Kent BatemanCredit: Ed Geller/Globe Photos/ZUMAPRESS.com
Victoria is from Shrewsbury in Shropshire, England.
Jason has been very open about how his mom’s British upbringing has influenced his relationship with comedy. “She turned me onto Monty Python very early,” he joked in a March 2014 interview with Collider.
“She had a very dry sense of humor. She never felt the need to laugh off something sarcastic. There was no winking with her,” Jason told Esquire in December 2025.
She was a flight attendant
Jason BatemanCredit: Kevin Winter/Getty
Victoria spent 30 years as a flight attendant for Pan Am.
However, the comings and goings of the job weighed heavily on her family’s home dynamic. When it came to major holidays, "Christmas was often celebrated on the 18th or the 30th,” Jason told the Los Angeles Times in July 2017. “Just to hang out with her, I’d go with her on one of her trips to Tokyo and I would be serving food trays down the aisle."
“She was flying internationally half the month my whole childhood ... we never really had Sunday dinners,” he added in his interview with Esquire.
Kent worked in Hollywood
Jason Bateman in Teen Wolf TooCredit: Atlantic/Kobal/Shutterstock
Meanwhile, Kent worked in independent film and television as a freelance writer, director, and producer. Some of his most notable credits include Land of No Return (1977), The Rogue and Grizzly (1982) and Bench at the Edge (1998). Kent also produced the 1987 film Teen Wolf Too, which marked Jason’s film debut.
Advertisement
Of his childhood, Jason told Esquire that his father "would either be on location or maybe downstairs in the basement writing a script."
“My father and I wouldn’t go to the park to play catch, we’d go to the movies and he’d explain to me what good acting is and what bad acting is,” Bateman told The Hollywood Reporter in February 2026.
They married in 1965 and welcomed two kids
Jason Bateman and Justine Bateman in 1983Credit: Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Kent and Victoria welcomed their daughter Justine on Feb. 19, 1966, in Rye, N.Y. Jason was born three years later on Jan. 14, 1969.
In a March 2011 interview with The Independent, Jason reflected on his “atypical” childhood and how his family “moved about a bit” before settling down in L.A. By the age of 7, Jason had lived in New York, Boston and Salt Lake City. He described Justine and himself as “latch-key kids” due to their parents’ non-traditional work schedules.
“My mother was out of town for two weeks out of every month, and my dad was always writing, so my sister and I were left to do our own disciplining,” he recalled.
Jason and Justine were both managed by their parents
Jason Bateman and Justine BatemanCredit: Mike Guastella/WireImage
Once Jason and Justine’s acting careers took off, Kent and Victoria began managing their kids.
While appearing on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast in February 2025, Jason revealed that 15% of his salary as a teenager “ended up being more than what [his parents] were making in their careers.” It eventually got to the point where Jason’s paychecks were paying for their home.
“It became an important component ... like, we were living in certain condo that we wouldn't be able to live in if they were just using their salaries,” he said.
Jason said he felt pressure to provide for his family as a child actor
Jason Bateman in 1988Credit: Vinnie Zuffante/Getty
According to Jason, his family’s livelihood was tied to his ability to get work as a child actor. “I do remember being really filled with anxiety about being able to continue to make a living in a business that I was pretty aware ... was tenuous at best,” he said on O'Brien's podcast.
However, his job was only safe as long as he maintained a C average in school, since his work permit would be renewed every six months based on his grades.
“The pressure of midterms and finals every year was immense for me, because it was 60% of your grade,” Bateman explained. “If I fail my midterm, I don't get my work permit, which means I'm kicked off the show, which means everyone on the show loses their job, we lose our house.”
Jason and Kent cut professional ties when Jason turned 20, according to the (via the Foster's Daily Democrat). Now, Jason and his parents don’t speak as often.
“I don't think there are many people who would say that was a healthy situation," Jason said of their previous relationship in a May 2008 Best Life interview. "I'm not a great brother or uncle or son, for that matter. I don't have this obligatory `I have to call Mom once a week,' because we're just buddies."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
