She shared her heartbreak about sending her daughters off to college multiple times in recent years.
But Brooke Shields has had a total change of heart about being an empty nester just months after her youngest daughter Grier, 18, left for university.
During an appearance Thursday on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, the 59-year-old actress — who recently joined Kim Kardashian and Ryan Murphy’s upcoming Hulu series All’s Fair — admitted that now she’s excited for her daughters to head back to school after spending their breaks at home.
‘I’m an empty nester. Then they came home for Christmas,’ she said of Grier and her old daughter Rowan, 21. ‘It was great — and then I couldn’t wait for them to leave.’
Of course, she admitted that she was ‘so sad for them to leave the first time,’ but some time to herself had helped her get used to not seeing the girls every day.
It got to the point that she was practically pushing her daughters out the door halfway through their winter break.
Brooke Shields, 59, admitted that she has a newfound appreciation for being an empty nester during an appearance Thursday on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (pictured)
She has had a total change of heart just months after her youngest daughter, 18-year-old Grier (L) left for university. Her older daughter, 21-year-old Rowan (R), left for college in 2021; seen December 30 in Nᴀssau, Bahamas
‘At the end of Christmas, I’m like, “Don’t you have to get back to school? Please. It’s time to leave,”‘ she joked.
Conveniently, she added that Rowan and Grier are happy with their college experience so far at North Carolina’s Wake Forest University, where they are both enrolled.
Read More Brooke Shields cuts a stylish figure as she promotes her new book at Women On The Move event in NYC 
Back in 2021, Brooke posted about dropping off her eldest daughter at college for the first time.
‘My unique and extraordinary baby girl spreading her wings. I love you so. We are so proud of you,’ she wrote on Instagram, before adding that the experience concluded with ‘the saddest drive away from anywhere I’ve ever had to make.’
But she remained optimist that Rowan was starting ‘one of the most important adventures of her life to date…’
She later said on Live With Kelly And Ryan that dropping her daughter off on campus was ‘the worst thing [she’s] ever experienced in [her] life.’
Brooke, who spends most of her time in New York, said she and her husband Chris Henchy — whom she married in 2001 — decided to drive down to the school instead of just taking a flight so that she could be spared having to ‘cry with that many people on an airplane.’
It was heartbreak all over again when Rowan’s summer break ended and she had to return to campus for her sophomore year.
‘They came home for Christmas,’ Brooke said of her daughters. ‘It was great — and then I couldn’t wait for them to leave. At the end of Christmas, I’m like, “Don’t you have to get back to school? Please. It’s time to leave”‘
Back in 2021, Brooke was overcome with emotion when she posted on Instagram about dropping off her eldest daughter at college for the first time, calling the drive home the ‘saddest’ of her life
It was heartbreak all over again when Rowan returned to campus for sophomore year. ‘I thought it would be easier the second time,’ Brooke said on Instagram at the time, before admitting that it was instead ‘so hard’ so say goodbye again
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She showed off her newly optimistic outlook on having her daughters out of the house while joining Fallon to promote her new book Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed To Get Old: Thoughts On Aging As A Woman, which was released on Tuesday
‘I thought it would be easier the second time,’ the Suddenly Susan actress said on Instagram at the time, before admitting that it was instead ‘so hard’ so say goodbye again.
‘I miss her already,’ she said through tears in the self-sH๏τ video.
Saying goodbye to Rowan multiple times didn’t make it any easier to send her youngest daughter Grier to school in August of 2024.
‘It’s not easy,’ she said of officially becoming an empty nester. ‘It’s not easy for the moms. I mean, it’s just so weird.’
Brooke showed off her newly optimistic outlook on having her daughters out of the house while joining Fallon to promote her new book Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed To Get Old: Thoughts On Aging As A Woman, which was released on Tuesday.
The book, which focuses on how women can take control of their lives in middle age, includes research and firsthand reporting to back up her conclusions.
‘I hope this book can help start a conversation that benefits us collectively,’ Brooke said in a statement to People.
‘Midlife can be the prime of life — it’s filled with so many more possibilities than we’ve been led to believe. I have loved the process of writing this book, and I can’t wait to share it with readers.’
