Brooke Shields Shares Emotional Reaction to Having an Empty Nest as Daughters Head to College: ‘Terrified’ (Exclusive)
The actress is mom to daughters Rowan, 21, and Grier, 18, who are now both officially away at college
Brooke Shields is officially an empty nester.
The actress, 59, and her two daughters Grier, 18, and Rowan, 21, spoke with PEOPLE for this week's cover story shortly before the girls both departed for college.
"I'm terrified!" Shields tells PEOPLE of her girls going away.
"I'm worried about me, just as much as I'm worried about her," jokes Grier.
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courtesy Brooke Shields
Brooke Shields with her two daughters"Feelings are fraught," says Rowan, who will be a senior this year at Wake Forest University, where Grier is set to join as a freshman. "I mean, I've already done it, and she was a mess. I think she's really busy now, which is good. Swamp her with work!"
"Off the record, I'm hoping you and Dad rekindle the flame," Rowan jokes of Shields' longtime husband Chris Henchy.
For Shields, it's a bittersweet moment as her daughters spread their wings and move out of the nest, becoming their own person.
"All of a sudden they are not yours anymore," Shields says. "When you realize they are their own human beings, you get to meet them again."
courtesy Brooke Shields
Shields with her daughters and husband HenchyOn Monday, Aug. 26, the mom of two shared an emotional video on Instagram after she dropped her daughters off at college. "It’s not easy for the moms. I mean, it’s just so weird. So weird that she’s not here," Shields said in her Reel.
"Anyway it was really hard and then she started crying and then I really started crying and then I cried a good portion of the ride home. So anyway, I’m an empty nester," she shared.
Even though her daughters are now all grown up, it doesn’t seem so long ago that Shields remembers bringing her girls home from the hospital.
“It feels like yesterday that I brought them home from the hospital,” she tells PEOPLE. “If I thought about it too much I would sob. Because I miss that."
"The other day there was a 3-month-old baby on the boat and I’m thinking I’m never going to have babies again," Shields remembers. "And I’m like, ‘Girls, the minute you get out of college, just give me one and I’m going to raise it.’ They’re like, ‘Mom, that’s weird.’”
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