rundown
Jason Bateman met his wife Amanda Anka in the late 1980s. they were still teenagers. After getting married in 2001, the couple had two daughters, Francesca and Maple. Bateman believes that her safe home life helped her build a career in Hollywood.
Jason Bateman has been acting since he was a child, graduating from child star to comedy legend and full-fledged actor. Following the success of Netflix’s Ozark, in which Bateman starred and directed several episodes, the Game Night actor returns to the streamer in the limited series Black Rabbit opposite Jude Law. In addition to a hugely successful career, Bateman seems to have a very happy family life. The actor has been married to actress and producer Amanda Anka for over 20 years. Here’s what you need to know about Jason Bateman’s wife and mother of his two children.
Jason Bateman and Amanda Anka were friends at first.
Before dating and getting married, Jason Bateman was longtime friends with his future wife, Amanda Anka. In a profile of Bateman published in GQ magazine in March 2013, Anka revealed that she first met Bateman at a Los Angeles Kings game in 1988, when she was still a teenager. Anka revealed that they started as friends and it took 10 years for them to start dating. “I just wasn’t interested in his situation at all,” she said.
Amanda Anka and Jason Bateman in April 2002.
It looks like the two took time to get to know each other, and it seems like it paid off in the long run. Bateman told Redbook in January 2013, “Our marriage has defied the odds and gone very well,” adding, “I wanted to marry a friend. Friends last a long time.”
The Horrible Bosses star shared the same sentiment in a 2014 interview with The Daily Telegraph Australia (via Cosmopolitan), revealing how she realized that if she wanted to stay married, “Maybe she should marry a friend.” “I wanted to marry someone who wouldn’t want to be with me unless I was in a certain mood. With close friends, you can be with me no matter what mood you’re in,” the actor said. “I’ve been waiting until I really found a girl like that in my life. Amanda is, and that’s why it feels so easy.”
Amanda Anka is an actress and producer
When they started dating, both Anka and Bateman were making a living as actors. Anka’s credits include playing a vampire in the original 1992 film “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” as well as appearances on television shows such as “Beverly Hills,” “90210,” “Diagnosis Murder,” “ER” and “Bones.” Most recently, Anka collaborated with her good friend Jennifer Aniston as a co-producer on the Apple TV+ series “The Morning Show.”
Before building a career in the entertainment industry, Bateman’s wife was well aware of what it meant to be a celebrity. Both of Anka’s parents are famous in their respective fields; her father, Canadian-American singer-songwriter Paul Anka, and her mother, model Anne de Zogeb, passed away in 2017.
Bateman told GQ in 2013 about his wife’s evolving career: “She deliberately slowed down at work in order to have a few children. And I think by the time she wanted to make a more concerted effort to get back into the workforce, her passion for work had waned a little bit.” However, the actor suggested that Anka was simply moving on and was no longer invested in pursuing an acting career like she had been before.
“I’m sure she’s happy,” he told the magazine. “It’s naive to expect that two carriers can accelerate or decelerate at the same time. I’m not surprised that one of us is in a different place than the other. It’s not better or worse. It’s just in a different place.”
Bateman and Anka married in 2001 and have two daughters.
In July 2001, the Zootopia actor married Amanda Anka in Malibu, People reported. According to the outlet, Bateman appeared on the podcast Our Way with Paul Anka and Skip Bronson in February 2024 and reminisced about the wedding. “Do you remember that I didn’t dance with Amanda at the wedding?” Bateman asked his father-in-law. “That’s not how I like dancing…you took away your dancing and mine.” Paul agreed, telling Bateman, “So you owe me.”
Jason Bateman and Amanda Anka attend the Screen Actors Guild Awards on January 21, 2018.
After their marriage, Anka and Bateman expanded their family by welcoming two daughters. Their first child, Francesca Nora Bateman, was born on October 28, 2006, followed by Maple Sylvie Bateman on February 10, 2012, as reported by People magazine.
Bateman was outspoken about his love for his family, often expressing gratitude to his wife and daughters in speeches and interviews. “Amanda, Frannie, Maple, none of this would be as much fun and probably not possible without you,” Bateman said while accepting the SAG Awards in January 2019, People magazine reported. “I love you more than I say.”
Bateman regularly praises his wife’s parenting skills.
Bateman has been candid about wanting to start a family, telling Redbook in 2013: “Being a father to two kids is everything I ever wanted. I love marriage and being a father. And my wife Amanda makes those things easier. She pampers me and simplifies my role as a husband.” The Identity Thief star went on to explain that his wife does “a lot of the heavy lifting” when it comes to raising children, especially when he’s busy with film and TV projects. “I try to make up for it on the weekends and when I get home,” Bateman told the magazine. “I respect that she has to fight for two children on her own.”
Us Weekly reported that backstage at the SAG Awards in January 2019, Bateman emphasized that Anka “also has a full-time career herself and is able to be a full-time mom and almost a full-time dad as well.” “I was just stunned by that,” the actor explained. “It keeps me grounded. It reminds me that I have a really strong example to follow.”
Amanda Anka, Francesca Bateman, Jason Bateman, and Maple Bateman attend the actor’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony on July 26, 2017.
Bateman and Anka have a very normal relationship.
Just like any relationship, Bateman and Anka have gone through ups and downs, which seems to have strengthened their bond. In a 2013 interview with GQ, the Cherry Falls actress said of her relationship with Bateman, “We disagree all the time! I think he secretly likes that we’re never bored and that we don’t just agree on everything.”
Bateman, star of Arrested Development, also opened up about the same topic in a 2013 interview with Redbook. “We are very aware of our limitations,” he told the media. “We know how to bother each other and how not to bother each other. If we don’t get along, it’s rubbish. If we fight with our girlfriends, we drive away. In our case, we learn quickly to fight or not fight at all.”
Anka, on the other hand, seems to realize what a nuisance her husband really is. The producer told GQ in 2013, “He’s sensitive, he’s not vulnerable, he’s the most sensitive, generous guy. That’s what’s interesting to me.” “You can’t drag him off the couch to go to a party. This is a guy who wants to buy frozen yogurt and go home.”
Bateman and Anka seem to be prioritizing not only perfect conflict resolution, but also spending quality time with each other and going on dates. As the Office Christmas Party star told Redbook, “Right now we’re in Friday night mode. We’re going to the movies, going out to dinner, so we’re trying to keep it that way.”
In August 2025, Anka and Bateman went on a “three-hour double date” in New York with Jennifer Aniston and her new boyfriend, Jim Curtis, according to People magazine. Even after all this time, they still seem very much in love.
In September 2025, Anka and Bateman appeared in public with their daughters.
Anka made a public appearance with Bateman and their two daughters at the Toronto International Film Festival. On September 7, the family attended the premiere of Bateman’s film Black Rabbit, making a rare appearance on the red carpet together.
They withdrew again in November 2025.
Anka attended the premiere of Zootopia 2 in Los Angeles on November 13th with Bateman and their daughters. The outing marked the family’s second red carpet appearance this year, following their appearance at TIFF.
Bateman talked about getting married in December 2025.
In a December 2025 interview with Esquire magazine, Bateman reflected on his relationship with Anka, saying, “I married my friend, not my girlfriend. That was a big thing for me. You break up with your girlfriend (but) I realized I didn’t break up with your friend.”
