No matter how old they get, Brooke Shields’ kids, 20-year-old Rowan and 18-year-old Grier, will always be her babies.
During a May 2 appearance on “The Jess Cagle Show,” Shields said she still has a close bond with her daughters and would even share her bed with them when her husband, Chris Henchy, is away.
“I mean my younger daughter just turned 18. The minute my husband is on any kind of a work trip or gone or something, they still sleep in the bed with me," she said. "We still watch rom-coms. They’re my babies and they won’t ever not be.”
Shields shares her kids with Henchy. Two years after they got married, the couple welcomed their daughter Rowan in 2003 and Grier in 2006.
But Shields' journey to motherhood was not easy. She underwent seven rounds of fertility treatments before becoming pregnant and eventually suffering a miscarriage.
“In one night, I became a full-blown adult,” she tells TODAY.com about the miscarriage. “It was the way I looked at it. I was like, ‘Oh, this is what real loss is.”
After the birth of her eldest daughter, Shields suffered from postpartum depression. Her experience was the catalyst for her book "Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression." The experience also led her to speak publicly about antidepressants.
And when she did, she was criticized in 2005 on TODAY by Tom Cruise, one of the most famous members of the drug-averse Church of Scientology, who suggested exercise and vitamins instead.
“If any good can come of Mr. Cruise’s ridiculous rant, let’s hope that it gives much-needed attention to a serious disease,” she wrote in an op-ed published by the New York Times the following week.
Here's everything you need to know about her two children.
Rowan Francis Henchy
Shields and Henchy welcomed their first daughter, Rowan Francis Henchy, on May 15, 2003.
In 2021, Rowan paid homage to her famous mom by wearing her Golden Globes dress to prom. The red strapless dress was worn by Shields in 1998, when she was nominated for the sitcom "Suddenly Susan."
“I thought it was a special night when I was nominated for a Golden Globe and wore this dress in 1998, but nothing could have prepared me to see my daughter wearing it to her prom,” Shields wrote in the caption. “proud mama!”
As a graduation gift, Shields and her daughter got matching ladybug tattoos.
"A special graduation gift and memory with my girl," she wrote in the caption of the post. "I’m so proud of you, I love you more than words can say."
In August 2021, Rowan left to start college at Wake Forest University. Shields took to Instagram to document the emotional day,
“My unique and extraordinary baby girl spreading her wings. I love you so. We are so proud of you. This was the saddest drive away from anywhere I’ve ever had to make. But my baby is BEGINNING one of the most important adventures of her life to date…NOW!” Shields wrote in the caption.
And the second go round, in August 2022, was no easier for her. Shields posted a short video of herself after waving goodbye to her daughter as Rowan headed back for her sophomore year at Wake Forest University.
“Turns out second time is NOT the charm when it comes to your baby going off to college. Sophomore year, here she comes. I’ll be crying if you need me…” Shields wrote in the caption.
Grier Hammond Henchy
The couple welcomed their second daughter, Grier Hammond Henchy, on April 18, 2006.
Shields opened up about mother-daughter growing pains and Grier's temporary "A-hole" stage in 2021, describing how she would get angry text messages from Grier.
“I’m trying to succinctly tell her what is the best plan of action to get said dress … I was laying it out,” Shields said on the "Armchair Expert" podcast. “Then I get a text saying, ‘I don’t appreciate the way you talk to me. I think you talk to me like I am a child.’”
Grier seems to be taking after her mother with her interest in modeling. In May 2022, the mother-daughter duo were featured in a Mother’s Day campaign for Victoria’s Secret.
"To be able to shoot this campaign with my daughter and to showcase the beauty of our relationship was a dream come true," Shields wrote in the caption.
Now a junior in high school, Grier is just starting to look at colleges. Shields said during an appearance on "The Kelly Clarkson Show" that she is "getting nervous" about her youngest.
“It’s funny, I said to my daughter, I said ‘I’ve spent basically 18 years telling you what to do," she said. "Telling you how to be ... so now I have to really allow you to be trusted.’”
When Grier watched her mother’s recent truth-bearing documentary “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields” for the first time, she had a strong response.
“Grier looked at it as all the things that I kept from her,” she said on TODAY with Hoda & Jenna. “She was outraged and she was very sad.
“She said, ‘Nothing you say to me, Mom, is going to make it better,’” Shields recalled. “She said, ‘I hate seeing bad things happen to you.’”
