Edie Falco isn't holding it back when it comes to expressing her feelings for parenting older kids. On the second episode of MeSsy, Jamie-Lynn Sigler's new podcast with Christina Applegate, the 60-year-old actress opened up about the grief of the end of parenting little kids.
"Nobody talks about when those little kids disappear — it’s like a death," she explained. Edie has two children, 19-year-old son Anderson and 16-year-old daughter Macy. She adopted her son in 2005 and her daughter in 2008.
Jamie-Lynn, mother of a 5-year-old and 10-year-old, says she's "holding on to all the little baby things" while navigating the younger years. She talked about holding on to the fact that her son Jack just lost his first teeth and that his hand "still doesn’t have knuckles."
Christina, who has a 13-year-old daughter, added, “To know we’re not going to get that back freaks me out." Edie continued on to talk about how she treasures the early days.
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"Early parenting stuff is madness but it’s some of the most divine, precious hours of my life," she said. "When they both fall asleep on you when you’re watching TV and it’s quiet and you realize, 'Oh my God I didn’t know I could feel this love.' And then they’re just gone forever and ever, and they’re just memories and are all over your iPhone!"
Christina then opened up about how living with multiple sclerosis changed how she can parent. “I told Sadie when she goes to college, wherever it is, I’ll be moving in with her," she joked. "I highly encourage Los Angeles-based universities. I’m like, ‘Why would you live in a dorm when we have our nice house?’ I’m doing everything I can to make her stay here.”
Later on in the podcast, Edie confessed that she was "intimidated" by Jamie-Lynn on the set of The Sopranos, which at the time she was just a teenager. "You portrayed yourself as so confident," Edie expressed. Edie played Jamie-Lynn's mother on the show.
"And the truth is when I was a kid in high school I was a weirdo and when I would meet girls like you, I was terrified of them," she continued. "They just looked like they knew what was going on and how to be with people. To be honest with you, I was intimidated by you. That is the truth."
"That is wild to me because I was such a little mess inside," Jamie-Lynn replied. "I felt so undeserving every moment I was there." But despite Edie's initial intimidation, she and Jamie-Lynn eventually bonded over the fact that they both struggled with health issues while filming the show.
Jamie-Lynn had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, though she kept it a secret, and Edie was being treated for breast cancer at the time. They both ended up confiding in their costar James Gandolfini, who knew something was wrong.
"They were calling in acting coaches to the set for me because I couldn’t tell anybody what was wrong but people could tell something was wrong," Jamie-Lynn said, adding to Edie, "I'm so sorry when you were going through breast cancer, and that a lot of it was quietly. You said Jim called you out and said something is up. He did the same thing to me. He pulled me aside one day and said, 'Something is wrong and you’re not telling anybody,' and in that moment I told him."
