McConnell welcomed three daughters – Elly, Claire and Porter – during his marriage to Redmon. However, he does not have children with Chao, despite her being family-oriented.
“I try not to have too many regrets,” she told CNN of their decision not to expand their family. “But I will say to young women, you know, when in my generation, we were taught that we can have it all. And so it was thought, well, you have a career. And then you would, you know, have your family and, well, there’d be no problem. Well, it doesn’t work like that.”
Chao explained, “So I try to counsel young women that they will have to be, regardless as to whether they want it or not, there are tradeoffs and sacrifices in life. And it’s important to know when those points occur because it would be a regret if you didn’t know you were making that tradeoff and it happened. And there was no chance to go back.”