Why Is The Internet Calling Celebrities Their "Stepmom" Or "Stepdad"?

Filipinos' obsession with celebrity love teams is top tier, to the point that when these on-screen (and sometimes, IRL) couples part ways, fans collectively refer to themselves as "children of divorce."

We've seen this play out over the years, especially with the breakup of Gen Z's favorite love teams like JaDine (James Reid and Nadine Lustre), LizQuen (Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil), and KathNiel (Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla).

But the internet never stops evolving—and neither does humor. A new pop culture reference is now taking over social media: The "children of divorce" have started referring to other celebrities as their "stepmoms" or "stepdads."

Essentially, stepmom, derived from the word stepmother, refers to a filial relationship between a biological child and their father's new wife following a divorce, breakup, or the death of the previous spouse. This relationship recognizes the new spouse as part of the family, even though there is no biological connection. The same concept applies to the term stepdad.

In Filipino pop culture, the terms stepmom and stepdad are still rooted in their literal meaning; however, they're now commonly used in fandoms to refer to the new partners of a celebrity's former love team.

This trend is especially visible on social media. For example, after actress Nadine went public with partner Christophe Bariou, JaDine fans began playfully referring to Christophe as their stepdad. Similarly, when James started dating Issa Pressman, fans dubbed her their stepmom.

This evolving language in fandom culture reflects how deeply audiences form emotional connections with celebrities and their relationships. Fans are not just passive observers; they actively participate in shaping celebrity narratives online, forming emotional attachments that resemble real relationships.

A study by psychologists John Maltby and Lynn McCutcheon explored this through what they called the "Celebrity Worship Scale." Their research found that celebrity admiration exists on three levels: entertainment-social (where fans enjoy celebrities for fun and conversation), intense-personal (where emotional attachment deepens), and borderline-pathological (where obsession begins to take hold).

Trends like calling a star's new partner "stepmom" or "stepdad" may seem humorous (or parasocial) on the surface, but they highlight a deeper cultural truth: People consume mass media not just to be entertained, but to form identities, communities, and emotional connections through the lives of public figures.