Emma Roberts scolds mother for sharing photo of son's face 'without asking'

We all know mothers can sometimes get a little excited and say or do the wrong thing.

So spare a thought for celebrities who have to live with their mothers' actions being played out on the world stage. ?

Hollywood darling Emma Roberts has given her mother a public dressing down after she shared a photo of the star's son on social media without her permission.

Emma Roberts son Rhodes — Emma Roberts has given her mum a public dressing down after she shared a photo of her son Rhodes. (Instagram)

Roberts, the niece of Hollywood heavyweight Julia Roberts and an actress in her own right, has been notoriously guarded about her private life in recent years.

This is especially the case when it comes to her two-year-old son Rhodes.

While Roberts, 31, has kept him relatively shielded from the public eye?, it seems her mother, Kelly Cunningham, didn't get the memo, posting a pic of her only grandchild on Instagram just over a week ago.

"Little man is growing up," the proud grandma captioned the post of Rhodes, who was wearing a green jumper, denim jeans and blue runners as he stood on a mound of fallen leaves. ?

The photo soon got thousands of likes, and caught the attention of Roberts, who took to her own Instagram account, writing, "When your mum posts your son's face without asking but you love them both so whatever," she wrote on her Instagram Stories under a photo of the offending post.

But her mother did not take her daughter's plea for privacy seriously, reposting Roberts' post to her Instagram along with the comment, "The battle continues. I love you Q!! Touch��."

Not to be outdone, Roberts shared the exchange on her Instagram stories, writing, "I love you mommy" over the image.

It seems the exchange was all in good humour, with Roberts speaking of the close bond she shares with Cunningham, who raised her as a single mum after her marriage to Julia Roberts' brother Eric ended when she was just a baby.

Now a single mum herself, after splitting from her son's dad, Garrett Hedland a year ago, she recently admitted motherhood was much harder than she anticipated.

In an interview with People last month at the premiere of her new film Maybe I Do, the actress said balancing motherhood and a career was "really hard."

"I now see why mums are always so tired," she said. "I just see it from such a different perspective now.

"I see how being a mum is a full-time job, so I see how for women who have full-time jobs and [are] full-time mums, it's so hard and I have so much respect for them.

"I'm so lucky my mum helps me a lot. I would die without my mum."

Roberts took to Instagram this week to share her own photo of her son, with his face turned away from the camera.

"Park day with my angel boy," she captioned the photo.

She also took to Instagram in December to document her son's birthday.

"Happy birthday to my angel boy Rhodes! I love you beyond!" she wrote.

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