Brooke Shields is terrified of her 17-year-old daughter, Grier Henchy, becoming a model.
Shields famously modeled for Calvin Klein as a teen and experienced the perils of childhood stardom firsthand. Thursday on “Live with Kelly and Mark,” Shields said she “fought” her daughter’s wish to be a model “for so long.”
Shields has some conditions if Henchy is going to model. The teen will have to go to college and listen to her mother — even if Shields has no interest in becoming her daughter’s manager like her own mother was.
“I finally had to give in and say, if you’re gonna do this, A, I’m not gonna be your manager,” she told Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos. “You’re going to be with an agency. You’re going to have a great work ethic. It’s not going to be comfortable and you’re gonna listen to me.”
Shields added that runway modeling and the behavior backstage are “just brutal” and that “the rules have changed” since she was a famous face. The actor most recently chronicled her own childhood stardom and relationship with her mother in the documentary “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields.”
“My mom was my manager and we were glued at the hip, which probably was how I could survive, because you couldn’t get to me,” she said Thursday. “She was … so protective. On the one hand, I was very naive, and on the other, I was just thrown into this crazy world.”
While the children of celebrities commonly follow in their parents’ footsteps (as evident in the discourse around “nepo babies”), Shields has understandable reservations — and recently said a Hollywood executive sexually assaulted her when she was in her 20s after pretending to offer her a job.
“It’s taken me a long time to process it,” Shields told People, adding that it was the “lowest point” of her career. “I’m more angry now than I was able to be then. If you’re afraid, you’re rightfully so. They are scary situations. They don’t have to be violent to be scary.”
Shields is just as impressed by her daughter’s fortitude as she is apprehensive, however, and said Thursday she wouldn’t be able to “handle” runway modeling herself. With Shields as a mentor, though, hopefully Henchy will never endure what her mom experienced.
“It’s a miracle that I survived,” Shields told People.
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