Meet Brooke Shields' daughters: Actress wanted to shield Rowan, 19, and Grier, 16, from teenage stardom
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Brooke Shields had a difficult childhood. Her new documentary, ‘Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields’, which premiered on Hulu and Disney+ earlier this month, narrates her life in Hollywood. The documentary focuses on the 57-year-old’s problematic upbringing and her relationship with her mother, Teri Shields, who died in 2012 after a long battle with alcoholism. When she became a mother, her own uneasy experiences as a child star instilled in the actress the need to protect her daughters.
Brooke is a mother to two daughters, Rowan and Grier Henchy, whom she had with her husband Chris Henchy. Rowan, who is 19, was born in 2003, and Grier, 16, was born in 2006.
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'Times have changed'
However, the Gen Z daughters were not happy about the documentary as some parts of it came as a surprise to them. Brooke said, as stated by Fox News, "You know I thought I did [teach them], but there's a lot in the documentary they did not know about, with which I got in trouble with them for because they were mad that I didn't inform them about everything. But needless to say, it opened up some other conversations." She added, "Well, I think times have changed a great deal, but I think it's important that we have that dialogue."
Grier's first stint at modeling
It wasn't a surprise when Grier, who looks just like her mother, announced that she wanted to become a model. However, she was still a minor and Brooke didn't want her to go through the trauma she was subjected to as a child. During an interview on The View on March 31, she said, “The more I fought her, the more she was going to fight to do it."
After fighting the idea of her youngest daughter pursuing a career in modeling, @BrookeShields tells us why she gave in and the rules she told her daughter to stick to. https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/MW6QnbGHwf
— The View (@TheView) March 31, 2023
However, despite being reluctant initially, Brooke said she wanted to support her daughter. Talking about the agency her daughter is now with, she said, “What’s amazing is IMG, which is the agency, won’t let them do anything until they’re 18, which is so much different, which is amazing. She’s quite stunning, but we don’t focus on that, but what I said was, ‘Alright, if you’re going to do this, you’re going to listen to me, and I’m going to put you with the right people to teach you. You need to know how to speak. You need to have opinions. You need to not fall prey to being skinny. You need to learn how to walk,'” reports Hollywood Life. Brooke said that she never walked a runway as she revealed, “I don’t know anything about that world, and it’s pretty brutal. Backstage at these shows, we hear horror stories. I said, ‘You’re going to have a handler. You’re going to have someone with you all the time.'"
Grier is already on her path to becoming a model and was featured in the Victoria's Secret campaign with her mother last year. "To watch her handle herself in a way, it makes me realize, OK, she's a pretty strong character. So I don't feel like this business will eat her up. It was really fun to be in front of the camera with her," Brooke said. Grier has already racked up more than 23K followers on her Instagram account. On the other hand, Brooke's other daughter, Rowan, is private and doesn't have a public social media account.
Rowan is pursuing broadcast journalism
As per DailyMail, Rowan graduated from high school in 2021, and is now pursuing broadcast journalism at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. In May 2022, Rowan interviewed her mother at the Fashionphile event in New York City, ET Online states, and asked her a few questions. Rowan asked, "Well, mom, I'm aware that you have walked countless red carpets, do you have one outfit that stands out that you wore that you felt the most comfortable and confident in?" Her mother replied, "That's a big word, confidence, because there was one dress that I wore at the Emmys and that was a Badgley Mischka, beautiful, hot pink dress. But I think that the outfit that I felt the most confident in, was at the CFDA. I wore this beautiful, man-tailored suit, and I had all these -- you know Danny Joe -- it was very Karl Lagerfeld-esque. It was a tribute, and my hair was different and I felt kinda powerful on the red carpet."
Following the interview, Brooke praised Rowan, saying, "I've been interviewed by you twice now, and my favorite thing, is that naturally you listen, and you try to find a way to respond, as well as segue into the next question. And if the segue doesn't work or if I've already answered part of that question, you move on and don't just read the questions, you interpret them."