Jamie Lee Curtis: 'We're damaging celeb kids'

Jamie Lee Curtis has urged the media to leave the children of troubled celebrity couples out of their coverage.

In an essay written for The Huffington Post, the actress spoke out against the press's approach to the revelation that Arnold Schwarzenegger had fathered a secret love child with his former housekeeper, insisting that the added attention would only serve to further traumatize the kids involved.

"I am, of course, concerned about how we all are fixated on the children. Looking for expressions of anger and hurt in their sweet faces that the adults have caused them," she wrote.

"I'm sure the news media that first posts the images of these children we are hearing about will get rewarded by millions flocking to see if there is a resemblance. We should all be ashamed of ourselves. They are children. They are innocent. We are damaging their lives by our curiosity."

She went on to take issue with the term "love child", adding that the stigma would only further impact celebrity kids in a negative way.

"All of my friends' children were born in love. They are all love children. Why do we only use that term for children born out of wedlock?" she explained. "Aren't all children born from marriage born from love? Are we still so locked in the past that legitimacy is determined [by a] marriage certificate? What about DNA?

"I urge us all to leave them alone. Let them tell us what they want to tell us when they want to tell us what they want to tell us, if they want to tell us."

Schwarzenegger's wife Maria Shriver recently hired a divorce lawyer following the announcement of the couple's separation.

The former couple, who were married for 25 years, are parents to 21-year-old Katherine, 20-year-old Christina, 17-year-old Patrick and 14-year-old Christopher.