Jane Seymour has enjoyed a long career as a Hollywood star, but her favorite role may just have been that of mother. “I was around for all of my kids,” she once told The Guardian, noting she always put the needs of her six children first. That meant taking them with her whenever she worked, which resulted in some interesting experiences, particularly for her firstborn daughter, Katherine Flynn. Born in 1982, Katherine (whose dad is actor David Flynn) was just seven years old when she ended up on the big screen, playing Marie Thérèse of France in 1989’s “The French Revolution.” “Katie was great,” Seymour praised during a chat on the “Got It From My Momma” podcast. “She actually spoke French in it!”
As she grew older, Katherine continued following in her mom’s footsteps — and increasingly came to resemble her, too. Eventually, she began discovering her own passions, but as Seymour told Motherhood Later, she couldn’t be prouder. “Katie turned out to be an amazing young woman,” the actor enthused. Here’s how Katherine Flynn built a life and career of her own.
Katherine Flynn grew up with five siblings in a tight-knit family
Jane Seymour has had several marriages, starting with Michael Attenborough and Geoffrey Planer, both of whom she married and divorced before tying the knot with actor David Flynn in 1981. The couple welcomed Katherine in 1982, followed by her brother Sean in 1985, but eventually divorced in 1992. Seymour got married again just a year later to actor James Keach, and they had twins John and Kristopher in 1995. In addition to her four biological kids, Seymour also embraced being a stepmom to Keach’s son, Kalen, and Flynn’s daughter, Jenni, both from previous relationships.
Speaking with The Guardian in 2013, the actor explained that she always treated all of the kids equally and made sure they developed strong relationships with each other. “We don’t use the word step kids,” she emphasized. “We do not distinguish.” That meant that her firstborn, Katherine, was close to her older half-sister, Jenni, whom her dad had with his first wife, Lynda Rowen. She was then encouraged to cultivate relationships not just with her brother, but with all of the half- and stepsiblings that followed. “All the older kids helped out with the twins, which was great,” Seymour mused, giving a glimpse into her blended family. What’s more, she told Motherhood Later that their bond hasn’t wavered with age. “I see them all the time, and they are friends with one another,” the actor revealed.
She was 3 months old when she first followed her mom on set
Katherine Flynn has lived a jet-set life from the moment she was born. In fact, she was just three months old when she took her first international flight. Jane Seymour, (who broke onto the scene as a Bond girl) was cast in a TV adaptation of “The Phantom of the Opera” in 1982 and, rather than turning down the role, she decided to take her newborn with her. “I remember being the first mom trying to get it all right,” Seymour shared on a 2025 episode of the “Got It From My Momma” podcast. The pair flew to Budapest, Hungary, for the shoot and, although Seymour was initially stressed, she soon realized she needed to ease up and enjoy the experience. “[Katherine’s] bedtime was dinner with me after work, listening to gypsy violinists in a restaurant whilst I fed her a bottle and gave myself some goulash,” Seymour recalled.
Following their successful first trip, Seymour made it a habit of always bringing her kids to work. As Flynn herself told the podcast, some of her fondest childhood memories involve the “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” set. The series ran from 1993 to 1998, just as Flynn was transitioning from tween to teen, and she loved being around the cast and crew. “It was just part of an extended family,” she enthused, noting she’d stop by both before and after school. Similarly, Flynn told Reel Talker in 2020 that she always loved the traveling aspect of her upbringing. Speaking of Seymour, she gushed, “She’s just a good, great, awesome mom that we’ve got to adventure with around the world.”
Despite her fame, Jane Seymour was hands-on with Katie
Jane Seymour has had an incredible decades-long career, but she never let her work or fame eclipse her duties as a mother. “The kids know I would choose family over any role and over anything in my life,” the actor told The Guardian in 2013. Indeed, she didn’t think twice about turning down jobs that simply didn’t fit with her parenting needs. She would only say yes to a gig if it allowed her to remain close to her children, so she could remain closely involved in their lives. “Anywhere I filmed, I took them with me,” she recalled. If that wasn’t possible, she’d simply walk away. “When they were younger, I had to make compromises,” she revealed. “Sometimes about not taking roles that may have taken me away from them too much.”
While that sort of lifestyle may have put them at risk of joining the ranks of other celeb kids known to act a bit bratty, Seymour prevented that from happening by actively passing down her values. “My mom has always been very grounded; she’s never taken anything for granted,” Katherine Flynn explained to Reel Talker in 2020. “[She] taught us to really appreciate everything that we have been exposed to and to really learn from our opportunities.”
Katie decided to follow her mom into the movie business
Although Katherine Flynn may not be one of those celebrity kids who grew up to be more famous than their parents, she did spend several decades following in her mother’s footsteps. It started when she was just seven years old and landed her first role by chance while accompanying her mother to Paris, France. Jane Seymour was filming 1989’s “The French Revolution,” in which she played Marie Antoinette, and Flynn ended up being cast in the film as her daughter. As a tween, she would again act opposite her mother, this time appearing in a few episodes of “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” in 1993 before branching out on her own. A slew of bit parts followed throughout the mid-2000s and up until 2018, when a small role in “Mistrust” ended up being her 21st and final acting credit.
“I started as an actress, and I worked a bit, but it never was the right fit for me,” Flynn would later tell Shoutout LA in 2022, admitting, “I am shy and not a natural performer.” Eventually, she realized she was more drawn to writing and directing. “It took me a long time to really know what I loved and was good at,” she mused. That discovery came around 2009 when she penned “The Quitter Show,” followed by 2011’s “Perfectly Prudence,” a Hallmark film in which she appeared opposite Seymour. “Working with my mom has been really fun,” she enthused after its completion. “It’s been very easy, actually.” In 2020, Flynn also worked on a short film called “Townes,” which actually starred her young daughter.
She’s also a passionate photographer
Just as Katherine Flynn began exploring her creative side behind the camera as a director, she discovered she held another artistic passion: photography. It was around 2014, when her daughter, Willa, was born, that Flynn decided to pick up a camera and start snapping shots with a Fujifilm camera. “Most of my early work is of my kids,” she admitted to Shoutout LA in 2022. However, it soon evolved into a practice that went far beyond her own home and proved to be both spontaneous and cathartic. “I love exploring Los Angeles by foot … as that’s when the most unpredictable discoveries happen,” Flynn told Basic Magazine in 2025. “I find that what I’m drawn to photograph is a reflection of my inner state and the world around me.”
Soon enough, photography eventually eclipsed her interest in both acting and filmmaking. “It allows me to be invisible, which I love,” she gushed to Shoutout LA, adding that it also let her creative side blossom like never before. “It wasn’t until I discovered photography that I truly found my calling in storytelling,” Flynn revealed.
Since picking up her first camera, she’s shot images for Maison Modulare magazine, worked as a photographer on documentary film sets, and exhibited in galleries around the country. More recently, Flynn even took home the top prize for photography at the 2025 Beverly Hills Art Show.
Katie is a doting mom herself
Jane Seymour was a hands-on mother, and it seems that Katherine Flynn is trying to emulate that same approach with her own kids. Flynn is a mom of three and, as she’s repeatedly shared in interviews, daughters Willa and Luna and son Rowan, whom she shares with Brett Simon, are her world. “[They] make me want to do better and be better every day,” she told Shoutout LA in 2022. Opening up about her parenting style, Flynn shared that it’s all about being there for her kids without smothering them. “It was always important to me to let them be exactly who they are and become who they want to be,” she explained. “Hold boundaries and love them to death, but otherwise stay out of their way.”
In that exploration, the young family has discovered that they all share a passion for art. Willa, in particular, who, at just six years old, acted in “Townes,” the short film Flynn wrote and directed. As proud grandma Jane Seymour told Closer Weekly in 2020, “Willa is a natural; she’s unbelievable.”
What’s more, they’ve also been busy making art out of scraps in a junkyard in Joshua Tree, California. “The best piece my daughters and I have created together is a spaceship, built entirely from salvaged materials,” Flynn enthused during a 2025 chat with Basic Magazine. “We also have what we call ‘Robot Village,’ an ever-evolving collection of robots built from found objects.”
She likes to give back through charitable work
Jane Seymour is one of those celebs who use their fame to help others, and daughter Katherine Flynn has followed her example. Back in 2010, Seymour and her then-husband, James Keach, started the Open Hearts Foundation to help support various small and medium-sized nonprofit organizations. The foundation raised funds to uplift grassroots efforts, but Flynn wanted to expand on that model, so she co-founded Young Hearts in 2017. This new branch of the foundation sought to help charities by offering them volunteers in addition to traditional cash donations. Opening up about Young Hearts’ mission with Shoutout LA in 2022, Flynn said her goals were “building community, compassion and finding those unique parts of ourselves that we can offer in service.”
It’s a philosophy she’s since tried to instill in her own kids through a second initiative called The Beehive Venice. As Flynn explained on the “Got It From My Momma” podcast in 2025, she wanted to teach her children about the importance of giving back but struggled to find opportunities that were suitable for kids. Deciding to take matters into her own hands, she encouraged them to deliver lunches and care packages to those in need throughout their own community of Venice, California. Soon, other families got involved, and The Beehive was born as a club for children wanting to learn about charitable work and offer up their free time to help those less fortunate.
Katherine’s bond with her mother has been unshakeable through the decades
Given how much Jane Seymour has prioritized her kids, it should come as no surprise that she and Katherine Flynn share an incredible bond. “She’s my rock,” Flynn praised on the “Got It From My Momma” podcast in 2025. “I think she’s that for every one of her kids, but especially me.” Explaining how her mother put them first as children, Flynn noted that hasn’t changed at all as they’ve grown up. She praised Seymour for always answering their calls, no matter where she is or what she’s doing. She echoed that sentiment when she told Reel Talker in 2020 that fame never affected their interactions. “She’s just a warm mom,” Flynn revealed.
Seymour has also supported all of her daughter’s artistic endeavors and has often lauded her online. “You’ve grown into such an incredible person, a loving daughter, and a fantastic mother,” Seymour wrote on Facebook in celebration of Flynn’s birthday in 2021. Similarly, she posed in front of Flynn’s photographic work in 2026 and wrote on Facebook, “Watching your child grow into their own voice, their own vision, and their own confidence is one of life’s greatest gifts.” The feeling is clearly mutual, as Flynn told the “Got It From My Momma” podcast that she’s long looked up to her mom and continues to do so. “I really admire her,” she enthused. “I’m really inspired.”
