24 star Elisha Cuthbert opened up about why she chose to step back from acting for four years.
The actress appeared on Today with Jenna and Sheinelle in mid-June to discuss her new YA rom-com TV show Every Year After, which is based on a book series by Carley Fortune.
During the sit-down interview, co-host Sheinelle Jones asked Cuthbert what her career hiatus “did” for her.
“After our second [child], I realized, because I had worked all through the first four years of through the first four years of our first child, and it was it was really hard to separate that mom from, like, the working person that I was,” the Canadian star told Jones and her co-host Jenna Bush Hager.
“So when we had our second, I just felt like I didn’t want to waste any second of it, and I didn’t want to be on set. I just felt like I needed to be at home with the kids. I enjoyed every minute. Now they are in school full-time, I feel like I have the space and the energy and the heart to kind of leave them,” she added.
Cuthbert is mom to daughter Zaphire, born in 2017, and son Fable, born in 2022. She shares both little ones with husband Dion Phaneuf, the retired pro hockey player she wed in 2013.
The Girl Next Door actress also spoke about her decision to take a break in an interview with People.
“I’ve been at this for a long time. I started when I was 11,” she explained to the magazine. “And I just got to a point, when my husband and I had our second [child], and I just thought, this is a good time to be with the kids and without any distractions. Those first four years are — they go by so quickly. They say it’s, like, in the blink of an eye and they’re like teenagers.”
That’s why taking this break “felt important to me, and just felt right,” Cuthbert said.
In Every Year After, the actress portrays Sue Florek, the mom of two boys — one of whom develops a love story with a neighbor girl in a lakeside town in Canada.
“To come out and be back on a show like this that feels right for me — and Sue is just so joyful and loving and maternal — it all felt really organic and great,” she told People. “It was a nice, smooth transition back to work. It was refreshing,” she said of the role.
The series was released on Prime Video on June 10.
Having started her career as a tween actress. Prior to her hiatus, Cuthbert starred in House of Wax, Old School and The Quiet, as well as The Girl Next Door and 24.