Steve Granitz/Getty ImagesWith all these celebrity breakups, I'm wondering how the kids fare. Do they get a second set of nannies?
—NanFan, via the inbox
You mean if Sandra Bullock hosts her ex-husband's kid, Sunny, for Christmas, will Jesse James' preferred nanny heat up the cocoa while Janine Lindemulder's preferred nanny drops in the little marshmallows? Interesting. Here's what I've learned...
It all depends on whether the exes are behaving themselves.
"If the couple gets along, then the best thing for both the mom, the dad and the children, is that the nanny stays with the children and goes back and forth between the homes," says Claudia Kahn of the tony agency The Help Co. "That has been the case with most of my clients."
Actually the better term may be nannies, as in plural. Because it's pretty typical for one celebrity child to require—require, mind you!—at least two nannies, if not three, in rotation throughout the day and night.
"There is always 24-hour care for Hollywood children regardless of their parents' marital status," says Rebecca Stewart of VIP Nannies Inc.
All that said, if the ex-spouses really don't get along, the kids may end up with two separate sets of nannies. Yes. That would mean about six or so nannies for one child.
"The nanny (or nannies) usually go with one parent or the other, and that one parent becomes the nannies' sole employer," former Hollywood nanny and baby sleep coach Suzanne Hansen tells me. And if the other parent resents that lack of control, he or she may hire a second set of hands reporting solely to the other party.
That's what happened a few years ago with Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards, for example. Sheen wanted to hire his own nannies for their kids—and Denise, apparently, would have none of it. So, only three nannies were available for the kids' cocoa, in that case.