NEWSKelly Rutherford Dates Differently as a Mom
Dec. 29 2009, Published 1:00 p.m. ET
Now that she’s a single mom to two children – Hermes, 3, and Helena, 6 months, Kelly Rutherford is pulling out all the stops to make sure her kids are happy and healthy.
After going through a messy divorce with Daniel Giersch, the Gossip Girl star is wary of dating again.
“I guess if it was an incredible person, but you know when you have kids, you’re so picky,” the actress, 41, cackles. “That’s the thing – it changes things a lot. You’re not just thinking about how you would relate to somebody, you’re thinking about how your children would relate to someone. It’s a whole different thing.”
In fact, if Kelly did find that special someone, she has ready-and-willing babysitters in Gossip Girl co-stars Blake Lively and Leighton Meester. The kids charmed the cast during a visit to the set.
“The girls are always saying they want to babysit. I say ‘alright, when you guys are done with all the exciting stuff in your life, come on over to my house, we’ll hang out and you can babysit.’ It’s so sweet – it’s so cute.”
She continues, “Blake comes from a big, nice family. Most of the kids do – most of the young, fabulous people on the show come from nice families. They’re very family-oriented.”
Lucky Hermes and Helena are the center of Kelly’s world.
“Helena’s like a little Buddha,” she tells me. “She smiles, and she giggles. She’s precious.”
How does Hermes like being a big brother?
“They’re so bonded,” she says. “It’s so beautiful. I think there’s that first month or two, and there’s a transition and welcoming this new baby into the family, and he has been incredible. Now he wakes up in the morning and wants to feed the baby. He’s telling me how to hold the bottle if I feed her, if I feed her with a bottle. He wants to kiss her, he does little tickles. He’s so cute. He loves it. He holds her.”
Want OK! each day? Sign up here!
She stopped breastfeeding Hermes at 2 ½, and credits nature’s food with her weight loss after Helena.
“I also pump, which I didn’t with him, but it’s still breast milk,” she tells me. “I was thinner after I had my son, and then again after with the baby. I think it’s just being a real hands-on mom. I mean, I’m running after the kids all day. My mother just watches me – she says ‘you never need to go to the gym because you’re constantly picking them up or running in the park with the kids.’”
One product she swears by is Bonpoint fragrance.
“They make a non-alcohol perfume that even the babies can wear,” she tells me. “It’s a very light fragrance. I don’t wear a lot of perfume because of the kids, and I just don’t like subjecting them to that. I don’t wear hairspray, I don’t do a lot of that, because if I want to nuzzle them and cuddle with my kids, I don’t want them getting a big whiff of perfume. Even the people that work with me, it’s the same. It’s one that I can wear. They have an alcohol-free and an eau de toilette. It’s a beautiful fragrance. I think that’s why they created it for the children.”
Hm, would Kelly spritz it on little Helena?
“No,” she says emphatically.
Being a working mom comes with guilt, but Kelly wouldn’t change a thing.
“When you’re a working mom, you’re just busy all the time,” she cackles. “There’s just never enough time in the day. There was a day years ago when I probably would’ve been bored between takes, but now it doesn’t happen. I have so much to do. It actually enriches the work, I think. It keeps the work very rich for me.”
Here's a pic of Kelly and I from her pregnancy days:
