Simplemost

Actions

Robin Williams’ Son Named His First Child In Honor Of The Late Actor

Robin Williams’ Son Named His First Child In Honor Of The Late Actor
Posted at 10:42 AM, Jun 14, 2019
and last updated 2020-08-04 15:45:28-04

When Robin Williams died of suicide in August 2014, it shook the entertainment world and left millions of fans blindsided. Williams was also mourned by his three children, Zachary (36 years old), Zelda (29 years old) and Cody (27 years old).

And now, Zachary has become a father himself, as his fiancée Olivia June just gave birth to their first child. In honor of his late father, Zak has named the little boy McLaurin Clement Williams. For those who don’t know, McLaurin was Robin Williams’ middle name. The couple says they will call him “Mickey” for short. How sweet is that?

The new babe is 8 pounds and 20½ inches, and mom Olivia shared photos on Instagram. She explains that Mickey was actually born on May 22, but that the family has kept the news very private as she is working on “increasing emphasis and appreciation for living life away from social media and focusing on my offline relationships.”

View this post on Instagram

Introducing you to my little family! My fiancé, Zak, and I were so happy to welcome baby McLaurin to the world on May 22nd. We are beyond thrilled he chose us to be his parents, and obviously think he’s the best, smartest, and cutest baby ever!! In life today, we expect everything to be live shared on social media, and many who are close to me are even just learning this news. 😬 We’ve kept this news private for a number of reasons, one of which is my increasing emphasis and appreciation for living life away from social media and focusing on my offline relationships, another being the challenges that face us as women startup founders. I have a lot more to say about this later, but at a high level… Becoming a mom is something I’ve always known I wanted, but as an early stage startup founder sometimes sounded impossible, not because I didn’t think I could manage it, but because I knew the extent of bias in the industry against me as a female founder and the fight to be taken seriously in building a business focused on solving social challenges for women. (Not to mention the fact that maternity leave doesn’t exist for me!) As I’m proud to have successfully built a business that doesn’t rely on Silicon Valley VCs taking women’s friendship seriously to operate and has an amazing supportive team, I’m excited to be expanding my role from global change-maker startup CEO, connecting millions of women to their best friends, to a milk factory, raising a really amazing little man who has a boss mamma. None of this would be possible without the most incredible and supportive partner a woman could ever hope for. Zak, the headline is true, you’re already and will always be, “World’s Greatest Dad!” Mickey and I are the luckiest. 🥰 [Photos by my super talented future sister-in-law @zeldawilliams]

A post shared by Olivia June (@heyoliviajune) on

“We are beyond thrilled he chose us to be his parents, and obviously think he’s the best, smartest, and cutest baby ever!!” she gushed in her post.

As you can see, Olivia also mentions how she is very busy now, both as a new mom and as a founder of a startup. The businesswoman is the founder and CEO of HeyVINA, an app that is “Tinder for girlfriends,” helping women find friends and build social connections in their community and beyond. What a cool idea!

Getty

Robin Williams’ son Zak is also an active mental health advocate. He recently took part in a campaign called Faces of Fortitude, which seeks to support people who have family members that suffer from mental illness or who have lost loved ones to suicide.

“There’s no education in place to tell you how to deal with this,” Zak Williams shared in his personal videos. “Once I took out all the inputs and elements of self-medications, it all became really raw. It was super painful. I had to stop thinking big and expansive to heal everyone and look inward. I found a lot in there. I realized I wasn’t broken. There was a lot of strength I didn’t know was in there.”

robin williams photo
Getty Images | Kevork Djansezian

Robin Williams was 63 when he died. He was known for his stand-up comedy, along with TV and film appearances starting in the early 1970s, when he could be seen in “The Richard Pryor Show,” “Laugh-In” and “Happy Days.” He had his own show with “Mork & Mindy” from 1978-1982.

After that, he appeared in movies such as 1989’s “Dead Poet’s Society” and 1997’s “Good Will Hunting” in 1997. He won an Academy Award for the latter. His movies also included 1993’s “Mrs. Doubtfire” and 1992’s “Aladdin,” which Disney recently remade as a live-action film with Will Smith paying homage to Williams’ Genie character.

Several months ago, Smith posted this fan-art image of his Genie and Williams’ original together on his Instagram.

Williams’ more recent films include “Night at the Museum” and “Happy Feet” and their sequels. He continued to work until his death; one of his movies, “Boulevard,” came out posthumously. And although his unexpected death shocked fans, it’s clear that this talented man’s legacy lives on, both in his work and his family.

robin williams photo
Getty Images | Theo Wargo

What an incredible message and a wonderful way to honor Robin Williams and his life. Enjoy your new baby, you two!

This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for other great tips and ideas to make the most out of life.