Gabourey Sidibe Reveals Why She Plans on Telling Her Twins She’s a Teacher Instead of an Actress

Gabourey Sidibe is not ready to expose her children to fame.

During an exclusive conversation with PEOPLE about her role in Lifetime’s Give Me Back My Daughter, the Precious star, 41, opened up about life as a mom in the spotlight. Sidibe, who’s a mom to 11-month-old twins Cooper and Maya, says that she’s very “protective of my kids” and wants to “hide” them from the chaos of Hollywood.

“There’s a very strange thing where I’m a mom and I’m a mama bear, I’m protective of my kids, but because of what I do for a living, I kind of expose them to this bigger world that I hope that they never find out,” she tells PEOPLE. “I’m more like Drake, you know? I really would like to hide … the world from my children, and I will for as long as I can.”

“Everyone was like, ‘Oh, do you let them watch you on TV?’ And I’m like, ‘First of all, my babies don’t have screen time,'” she adds. “Secondly, I’m just simply going to lie to them as long as I can about what I do for a living. I’m going to tell them I’m a teacher, and also, our household is very normal.”

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Outside of her career, the Empire actress says she lives a regular life at home with her husband Brandon Frankel. Sidibe, who tied the knot with Frankel in March 2021, admits that she has no intention of sharing her career with her children anytime soon.

“We try to keep it normal,” she says. “It is kind of scary to share them online, but also they’re just so cute and we have family and friends in other states, and sometimes it’s just easier to put things on [Instagram].”

Sidibe admits to PEOPLE that sharing her children on social media is “odd” for her. She also says she sometimes gets “overwhelmed” by the reactions on her social media, despite what she does for a living.