Inside Alexander Skarsgård's & Tuva Novotny's Private Family World

Oct 23, 2026 - 13:15

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Inside Alexander Skarsgård's & Tuva Novotny's Private Family World

Alexander Skarsgård Wears Olivia Colman’s Face in Yet Another Wild Wicker Red Carpet Look

Alexander Skarsgård isn't a wicker man in real life, but he's made of all the right stuff as far as Tuva Novotny is concerned.

And at least one key component of the Swedish actors' romance is that they're on the same page about keeping their careers separate from their personal business.

"For many years, I wouldn’t do interviews, I wouldn’t watch my own stuff," Novotny, who shares a 4-year-old son with the Wicker star and has two daughters from a previous relationship, told Vogue Scandinavia in 2024. "I don’t see myself as a public person. My job is public and then what I do outside of work is super private."

And that's obviously Å-OK with Skarsgård. Back when he was single and living out of a suitcase, he told The Guardian in 2018, he didn't talk about relationships as "a way to protect it."

“When I was a kid, that’s how my father dealt with it," he explained. "I wouldn’t say it kept him sane, because he’s pretty crazy, but somewhat. The fact that he protected his private life so much, and protected my mum who is not an actor or a public figure.”

Skarsgård is the eldest of actor Stellan Skarsgård and physician My Skarsgård's six children, plus he has two half-brothers from his dad's second marriage.

"Eventually when it’s time to have kids and stuff, I want to have nine," the Big Little Lies alum quipped. "I want to beat my dad.”

Skarsgård's own branch of the sprawling tree sprouted toward the end of 2022, but he didn't confirm that he had become a dad until March 2023, when he accepted the congratulations of a reporter—and a stuffed animal from a well-wisher—on the Succession fourth season premiere red carpet.

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They've never shared how they met, but he and Novotny have now been together for seven years and they make their home in the Södermalm district of Stockholm, where they're surrounded by members of Skarsgård's "very big, very tight family."

"Lots of drinking, lots of smoking, lots of crazy, eccentric people," he told The Times in an interview published Oct. 17. "But a very fun environment to grow up in. To this day my entire extended family live within a 10-minute walk from here."

As for his own household, the 50-year-old quipped that his partner's teenage daughters think he's "deeply uncool, of course." But since becoming a dad, his "priorities have changed."

Skarsgård explained, "It was easy, before, to be spontaneous. I'm quite adventurous, so if an opportunity arose to go to the South Pole or Greenland, or sail across the Atlantic, I did it."

He now saves most of his risk-taking for the screen, as his role in Wicker—about a lonely fisherwoman who has the town weaver craft a perfect husband out of the titular material and he proceeds to fulfill her every need—would attest.

Skarsgård is still interested in exploring the world, he noted, "but spending time with my boy is incredibly precious. It's made me more discerning. I don't feel the need to work nonstop the way I did before. If I take on a job it has got to be special enough to warrant being away."

Cindy Ord/Getty Images for 2019 Tribeca Film Festival

When his father starred in 2025's Sentimental Value as a self-absorbed filmmaker who's estranged from his adult daughters, Stellan and his kids had a good time poking fun at the assumptions that the role was at least somewhat true to life.

Skarsgård told The Times that, while he didn't talk to his dad much about work when he was younger, preferring to make his "own mistakes and stupid decisions," the 75-year-old now "feels like a friend who's also a colleague that you're shooting the s--t with."

But when he was a kid the True Blood alum did wish for a more average upbringing.

"My dream was for my family to be normal and fit in and be like everybody else’s family," Skarsgård said during a sit-down with Stellan for Variety last December. "For you to have a briefcase, that would’ve been fantastic, rather than a weird tote bag that you found in India."

Now it's Skarsgård's son who will one day have thoughts about his father's beguiling see-through Saint Laurent footwear, but it's the chaotic portion of his childhood the Emmy winner wants to avoid passing on, not the creative part.

On her end, Novotny "wasn't really interested in performing at all" when she was a child, she told Vogue, but growing up in her own big, artistic family with her actress mom, director dad and five siblings, "the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I wasn’t pushed, I was inspired.”

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And though the Annihilation actress could do without the interviews, red carpets and other public-facing parts of her career, she "always worked through parenthood," she noted. "It’s super important that you keep yourself intact."

The 46-year-old explained, "Work for me is a place where I feel inspired and I meet people—there’s that social aspect. Bringing that back home is a good thing for parenting—for me, at least."

And while Skarsgård still loves the "traveling circus" aspect of being an actor, he told Variety in February it's now time for him "to balance that with family life and making sure I can be present for my kid. I can’t be as selfish and narcissistic as I was before."

Because now he has a son to not push, but inspire, and let the apple fall where it may.

Read on for a guide to that huge Skarsgård family:

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Stellan Skarsgård

Born in Gothenburg, Sweden, on June 13, 1951, Stellan Skarsgård starting acting as a teenager in his home country, where he's long since reached national treasure status.

He's a familiar face in Hollywood thanks to films such as The Hunt for Red October, Good Will Hunting, Mamma Mia!, Thor, Dune and Sentimental Value, for which he won a 2026 Golden Globe for supporting actor, as well as roles on HBO's Chernobyl and Disney+'s Andor.

He married doctor My Skarsgård in 1975 and they had six children together—Alexander, Gustaf, Sam, Bill, Eija and Valter—before divorcing in 2007.

"My mom’s gone through a lot," son Bill Skarsgård told Esquire in 2024. "I’m very proud of who she is today. She’s devoted her life to help recovering alcoholics and addicts, which she’s gone through herself." (While largely a private person, My has talked about being in recovery and her work as an addiction counselor.)

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Alexander Skarsgård

Stellan and My welcomed their first child together on Aug. 25, 1976, in Stockholm.

"My dream was for my family to be normal and fit in and be like everybody else’s family," Alexander told Stellan in a 2025 sit-down for Variety. "For you to have a briefcase, that would’ve been fantastic, rather than a weird tote bag that you found in India."

Most people in our family are artists—a lot of eccentric, big personalities that I loved. But the early teens, bringing friends over was always like, 'Oh, God,' because I wanted it to be like everyone else’s household."

The actor known for True Blood, Big Little Lies, The Legend of Tarzan, Succession, Murderbot and more even joined the Swedish Navy at one point to distance himself from all the artistry—and the attention.

Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic

"Looking back, I don’t think it was an act of rebellion against you," he told Stellan. "But coming from a bohemian family, I was like, I want to find my own path. The most extreme contrast would be to go into the military. So it wasn’t a conscious 'F--k you, Dad” thing.

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images for Lexus

Alexander privately welcomed his first child with actress Tuva Novotny in 2023, but he's got time if he still wants to out-reproduce his father.

"My dad had kids in the ’70s, the ’80s, the ’90s, the 2000s and the 2010s," the Emmy winner told Chelsea Handler in 2013. And, he quipped, “I want to beat my dad."

Jeff Vespa/Wire Image

While he splits his time between Sweden and New York, the Skarsgards remain "a very tight group,” Alexander told the New York Times in 2022. “Everyone lives within two blocks of each other in South Stockholm and we see each other all the time when I’m home.”

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Gustaf Skarsgård

Gustaf was born Nov. 12, 1980, and started acting at 6, the first of his siblings to take the plunge.

“To any child, the first occupations that are presented to you are your parents’,” the Vikings and West World actor told Interview in 2017. “I was appealed to my dad’s occupation from the get-go.”

At the same time, he wanted to prove himself, turning down soap opera roles he was offered based on name recognition. "I was really pretentious in a sense," he recalled, "and was like, I’m going to drama school, to learn the craft. But in hindsight, I’m really grateful for that 17-year-old that got that early.”

Gustaf shares a daughter, born in 2020, with partner Caroline Sjöström.

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Sam Skarsgård

Sam, born in 1982, picked up a few acting credits as a child but eventually followed in his mother's footsteps and became a doctor.

"He works at an ICU so he, on a daily basis, saves lives," Alexander said during a 2017 Interview chat with brother Bill.

Added Bill, "There's definitely a sense of embarrassment about what it is artists really do, at least for me in terms of acting. We have a mom and a brother who literally save lives."

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Bill Skarsgård

Born Aug. 9, 1990, at first Bill wasn't too keen on "being number four," as he put it to Esquire in 2024 regarding his early trepidation about being an actor like his father and two older brothers.

But after breaking through in the U.S. in the series Hemlock Grove, then booking The Divergent Series: Allegiant, Atomic Blonde, It, Barbarian, John Wick: Chapter 4, Nosferatu, etc., fourth has started feeling like first.

Though he also sometimes fantasizes about a job that involves a briefcase—“Something more stable," he said—acting fit him like a glove.

"There are those moments,” Bill explained, “when you’re totally lost in the moment. When during the whole take you never thought once about the fact that you’re doing it. You aren’t acting.”

As for his own domestic life, the It: Welcome to Derry star welcomed a daughter with actress Alida Morberg in 2018 and confirmed in 2023 that they had welcomed her younger sibling.

Ibl/Shutterstock

Eija Skarsgård

Eija, Stellan's only daughter, was born in 1992 and works as a casting director for Swedish film and TV.

"During each of my wives' subsequent pregnancies, my daughter would say, 'I hope it's not a girl,'" Stellan told The Guardian in 2015. "She's very strong, stronger in many ways than the boys, and relishes her position."

Eija and husband Zeke Tastas welcomed son Aldous Judo Tastas Skarsgård in September 2025.

Iwi Onodera/Getty Images

Valter Skarsgård

The youngest of Stellan and My's six children was born Oct. 25, 1995, and made his acting debut at 8 in the short film To Kill a Child, written and directed by Alexander. Around the same time, he played a younger version of Gustaf's character in the Swedish film Details.

Valter and Bill later played brothers in 2007's Arn: The Knight Templar, with Gustaf in the role of their father.

He's ventured beyond his family's business since, appearing in the horror films Don't Click and Funhouse, as well as the Netflix series The Playlist, about the founding of Spotify (a Swedish company, FYI), and the Canadian hockey series Börje.

Valter made his red carpet debut with girlfriend Melina Göransson in December 2024.

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Ossian Skarsgård

Stellan married wife Megan Everett-Skarsgård in 2009 and they have two children together.

Son Ossian was born April 26, 2009, and his first acting credit was providing the voice of "Young David" in the 2017 film The Wife. Through 2023 he was a regular on the Swedish fantasy series Trolltider - Legenden om Bergatrollet.

Jamie McCarthy/WireImage

Kolbjörn Skarsgård

Born Aug. 24, 2012, Kolbjörn is the youngest actor in the family (for now), starring on the SVT horror series Blood Cruise. But while his older brothers experienced their own misgivings about taking up their dad's profession, nepo baby accusations have been particularly hard on the teen, according to his father.

"When his pals at school call him nepo baby, he gets so sad," Stellan told Vulture in 2025. "He gets isolated. Cruel kids—or cruel and ignorant. They love it on the internet. But it is such a bulls--t thing. Because nobody would hire you, at least not for anything good, if you’re not good enough."

So far, every Skarsgård that's ventured into acting has been good enough to get called back for more.

Stellan told Alexander during their Variety chat that, while he was pretty shocked when his eldest son joined the military, "I also knew that all you eight kids have different ways of approaching everything. Maybe I’m lazy, but I think it’s best to let you do it on your own."