NEWSRed Carpet Confidential: Jennie Garth Dreads Back-To-School Season
Aug. 12 2009, Published 1:00 p.m. ET
Jennie Garth is a hands-on mom to daughters Luca, 12, Lola, 6, and Fiona, 2. The 90210 star, who wed Twilight’s Peter Facinelli in 2001, has two weeks left of summer vacation, and intends to use it wisely.
“I’m relishing in every minute that I get to sleep in long, and not make a lunch,” the T.J. Maxx Save The Children spokeswoman says.
Now that her youngest daughter is about to enter preschool, Jennie, 37, admits she’s feeling nervous. “I’m the mom that stays in the back of the class, hiding,” she says. “I want to stay with them as long as I can. She’s going to school where my other two daughters went to school, and they let me stay as long as I need to. It’s not even about Fiona … it’s about my separation issues.”
Before Jennie lets go, she’ll take the girls on a shopping spree.
“I have one daughter that’s in a uniform, which I absolutely love because it takes that pressure off of her mind,” she says. “She’s going into seventh grade. And I have another daughter who likes anything pink and sparkly that covers her butt. She wants to be able to go down the slide and not worry about her underwear showing.”
What brands do they have to have?
“My oldest could care less,” Jennie says. “Most of the time I have to ask her ‘are you sure that’s really what you’re going to wear out of the house?’ because she doesn’t care about it, which is what I love about her. She doesn’t feel any pressure in that area. I don’t know how I managed to do that, but so far, so good with her. But the other one, as long as it’s sparkly and pink, it could cost $1.99 or $200 – she doesn’t care.”
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The Garth-Facinelli family has something in common with many other broods.
“I don’t know if the washing machine eats them, or if they just magically disappear, but I can never seem to provide enough socks for my kids,” she chuckles.
After school, the girls can look forward to dinner with dad – even though he’ll be shooting The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.
“He Skypes the girls, and we have dinner together with him on his computer,” she says. “Fiona tries to feed him through the screen. She doesn’t really get it that it’s a flat thing.”
Do her daughters hope to follow in their parents’ footsteps?
Although Jennie got her start on Mickey Mouse Club movies Teen Angel Returns and Just Perfect, she dropped out of high school during her junior year, later receiving her diploma. She wants to make sure her girls get their education.
“My 12-year-old is really beautiful and talented … I know I’m sounding like a proud mother … but she’s got a great voice, she’s got the whole thing going on,” Jennie says. “I think that she would love to do something like that, but she knows that I’m gonna make sure she goes through high school first, and when she’s ready, to do it the right way. No one’s gonna go to acting classes before they’re done with high school in my house.”
Three Questions With Jennie Garth appears in the OK! on newsstands this week. The cover line is Britney Spears/“I Love My New Body.”
And, stop by T.J. Maxx to get a reusable shopping bag to benefit Save The Children. For each reusable bag sold, T.J. Maxx will donate one basic item — like socks, underwear or backpacks — to Save the Children's U.S. Programs. It’s a great cause.
