Tori with her husband Dean and their children Stella and Liam.
All Hollywood's littlest princess ever wanted was a
normal life. Now Tori Spelling has: one a husband, two kids, and a
reality show. (Hey, it's all relative.) Check out more pictures
of Tori and her family from Cookie's June/July issue, out
June 2.
By Rory Evans
As a girl, Tori Spelling traveled in a luxury railroad car attached to an Amtrak for a family vacation. (Her dad, TV producer Aaron Spelling, was afraid to fly.) One Halloween, Dynasty costume designer Nolan Miller made her an elaborate Marie Antoinette getup. And through it all—underneath the white sausage-roll wig—she craved a normal childhood. Of course, now 36, with her own 2-year-old son, Liam, and 1-year-old daughter, Stella, Spelling admits "there are a lot of variables to normal, especially in Hollywood," which is what inspired her to write her second memoir, Mommywood (Simon Spotlight Entertainment). Admittedly, her kids have uniquely showbiz-y lives, and not simply because Mom and Dad—actor Dean McDermott—have been paparazzi bait since 2005, when they ended their previous marriages to be together. Their house is rigged for filming Oxygen's Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood. And sometimes Spelling, who also designs a kids' clothing line, simply can't help herself and replicates a few fairy-tale aspects of her own girlhood. Cookie went poolside to get the details.
Related: View pictures of Tori Spelling and her family.
COOKIE magazine | During your larger-than-life Beverly Hills childhood, your dad had snow trucked in for Christmas. And you recently did something similar for your kids?
Tori Spelling | We rented a snow machine. As much as I wanted to be normal, as I look back, those big gestures were pretty amazing. So we hosted an event for the Ronald McDonald House Charities and had real snow in our yard. It was very wink-wink-nudge-nudge about my white Christmas when I was a kid. I had this vision of it being sunny Los Angeles with sledding, but it was rainy and muddy, and we had to put up a tent. The kids didn't care, though. Liam was hesitant, but we got him on a sled a few times.
Related: Read all of Cookie's celebrity moms and dads profiles.
CM | In your book, you describe Liam as a daddy's boy. Is that still the case?
TS | Well, it turns out that Stella is a total mama's girl. My biggest fear in life was having a girl—how was I going to handle a girl [considering my relationship with my mother]? But for all my fears, without my even trying, Stella wants her mama. When she is in Dean's arms, she lunges for me the way Liam did for him.
CM | How did you become such a homebody and party
hostess? Tori Spelling with her husband Dean
TS | I think the way I rebelled was by deciding to do things for myself. When I moved into my first apartment, I was superexcited to do my own cleaning.
CM | Are there things that you don't let the Tori & Dean crew tape?
TS | We're honest, but we're selective. They did film me coming home from the hospital four days after a C-section, when I was not looking my best. But I've come to the conclusion that on my show, I can look like a real person—even if the weeklies expect celebrities to look perfect when they go to the market. The film crew isn't here all the time, either, because I want the kids to know life without cameras. That said, two of the cameramen and the sound guy are like uncles to them.
CM | It seems like you've made a very nontraditional extended family for yourself.
TS | People assume celebrities have other celebrity friends, but I don't really. I made some amazing friends when I was 15, and they are truly my family now. Maybe I didn't get dealt the cards for a close family, but those old friends—Mehran and Jenny and the "gay uncles," or "guncles," Scout and Bill—have proven to me that they are my family.
Continue reading our interview with Tori Spelling
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