Jennifer Lawrence Gets Candid About Rehoming Her Beloved Dog After Her Young Son Got Bit

Jennifer Lawrence shared a surprisingly candid—and darkly funny—update about her personal life during a recent Q&A at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, hosted by Josh Horowitz.

What began as a light question about whether she considers herself a dog or cat person quickly veered into a conversation about motherhood, boundaries, and the complicated realities of rehoming a pet.

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Lawrence revealed that her chic Chihuahua, Princess Pippi Longstocking, now lives with her parents. The reason, she explained, had less to do with love lost and more to do with how profoundly her sense of safety shifted after becoming a mother.

The actress paused before revealing:

“I am really uncomfortable answering this question. She’s alive, she’s with my parents. She did not like New York. I lived on 1st and 67th just to be near the park for her.”

For anyone bracing for the worst, the relief was immediate: Pippi is alive and well.

But Lawrence didn’t stop there. After welcoming her first son in 2022, followed by another baby boy in 2025, she explained that her relationship with dogs changed suddenly and irreversibly.

She put it bluntly:

“After I had a kid, dogs became so scary. My son’s going up to it… and it’s almost like I don’t recognize dogs right now. I just see them as a threat.”

Lawrence shares two sons with her husband, art dealer Cooke Maroney, and framed the decision as one rooted in instinct. Pippi, she noted, never loved city life to begin with, and motherhood sharpened her awareness of risk in ways she hadn’t anticipated.

That anxiety came to a head after a specific incident involving her child, one Lawrence described with her signature blend of shock humor and hyperbole.

Leaning fully into that tone, Lawrence joked:

“One of them bit my son, and that just made me want to obliterate every dog ever. I'm just like, 'I'm gonna take out you and your f**king family. You and your friends. I'm gonna go to China and take care of your friends over there. Anyone who looks like you is dead.’”

You can view the clip below:

The comment, delivered in Lawrence’s characteristically unfiltered style, spread quickly online. Some viewers recognized it as gallows humor from a new mother processing fear. Others found the language hyperbolic, excessive, and disturbing.

The internet, predictably, split.

One Reddit user offered a more empathetic take in response to the clip:

“Unfortunately I was in this situation myself recently and it’s absolutely heartbreaking. I think it’s a lot more common than people want to talk about.”

To be clear, Pippi wasn’t abandoned or surrendered; she was rehomed within the family, to an environment probably better suited to her temperament. When safety concerns arise—particularly with young children—experts frequently note that responsible rehoming is not a failure, but an act of care for both the pet and its humans.

But that nuance didn’t stop criticism from rolling in. Some dog lovers took issue with the decision outright, while others focused on Lawrence’s choice of words.

One Instagram user commented under a clip of the chat shared by E! News:

@drwhitesmile/Instagram

Lawrence’s history with Pippi complicates that narrative. The actress has long been publicly devoted to the tiny dog, once bringing her as a date to the 2018 BAM Gala and regularly taking her along to dinners and meetings. She has also been famously protective, previously snapping at a paparazzo for getting too close.

In a past interview with Vogue, Lawrence admitted to constant anxiety about Pippi’s safety:

She told Vogue:

“Coyotes, bigger dogs, rattlesnakes, big crows. Every 20 minutes, I have a heart attack. I’m going to be a great mother.”

In hindsight, the comment feels almost prophetic.

The discussion quickly expanded, drawing in even more social media responses:

These days, Lawrence says she’s firmly a cat person. She and Maroney share their home with a cat named Fred, whom she described with affectionate irreverence.

She revealed:

“They’re so misunderstood. They are assholes, and people who don’t like that about cats aren’t getting that that is what is so funny.”

She added that Fred has a habit of entering rooms as if by coincidence, always pretending he just happened to be there.

The Q&A—equal parts uncomfortable, funny, and revealing—mirrored the emotional tone of Die My Love, a dark psychological drama available to stream on MUBI that premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. The movie explores motherhood, identity, and psychological unraveling.

The film has drawn critical praise for Lawrence’s bracingly raw performance. Directed by Lynn Ramsay and adapted from Ariana Harwicz’s novel, the film stars Lawrence opposite Robert Pattinson and leans into the messier realities of maternal experience—ones Lawrence now understands more than ever.

You can view the trailer below:

- YouTubeMUBI

So, Lawrence’s remarks are less like an episode of Scandal and more like a continuation of her typical public persona: honest, darkly humorous, and uninterested in sanding down sharp edges for societal approval. The dog is fine, and Lawrence remains unmistakably herself.