Christina Ricci claims ex-husband James Heerdegen left her high and dry when it came to raising their son, Freddie, as an infant.
“My son was never sleep-trained because I had to go back to work when he was 2 months old, and my husband at the time, [James], wouldn’t help me at all with anything,” Ricci, 44, claimed during the Monday, March 25, episode of Shannen Doherty’s “Let’s Be Clear” podcast. “I had to do all the night stuff and get up and go to work for 14 hours and be on camera. So, the only way to do that was to lie with him, and he would breastfeed whenever he wanted and sleep with me. I had to have him in the bed with me just to get enough sleep and be able to work the next day.”
She added, “I was basically doing it all on my own, so that part is tough, but you just get through it. You just keep going. I repeat to myself all the time, ‘It’s temporary.’”
Ricci and Heerdegen tied the knot in 2013 and welcomed Freddie, now 9, less than one year later. After six years of marriage, Ricci filed an emergency protective order in July 2020 amid domestic violence allegations. The order was granted, and Ricci filed for divorce the following month. Us Weekly confirmed in April 2021 that Ricci had also been granted sole legal custody of Freddie, with Heerdegen being given visitation rights. Their divorce was finalized in December 2022.
Following her split from Heerdegen, Ricci moved on with celebrity hairstylist Mark Hampton. The pair wed in October 2021, and the Yellowjackets actress gave birth to their daughter, Cleopatra, two months later. While speaking with Doherty on Monday, Ricci explained why raising her second child has been an entirely different experience.
“Now I have a wonderful husband who does more,” she gushed. “I went back to work when [my daughter] was 2 months old and shot Wednesday in Romania, and Mark did every single night, all night long. I just slept and went to work the next day. It made such a huge difference. It was so much easier this time around. You have to have a good, supportive partner.”
Hampton has proven to be helpful in more ways than one. During an August 2022 episode of the “Unqualified” podcast, Ricci told host Anna Faris that her now-husband taught her what a trusting relationship looked like.
“I would say — and this sounds really annoying and cloying and stupid — but I would say the first time I really fell in love in a healthy way is probably this marriage that I’m in now,” she said of her romance with Hampton. “I think a lot of my relationships in the past had a lot to do with unhealthy things that I was looking for.”
Ricci added that it can be challenging to even look back on her past entanglements with fondness now that she’s found Hampton, saying, “I don’t know if you can call [it] love, but I don’t think things that aren’t good for you should be called love.”
Hampton was also by Ricci’s side after she sold many of her prized fashion possessions amid her divorce from Heerdegen. While Ricci told the Sunday Times in November 2022 that she no longer invests in fashion, Hampton has taken to eBay to source her vintage magazine covers.
“What has been interesting with Mark was that he was horrified that I hadn’t saved anything, so he has gone on eBay and found my old magazine covers, which is really lovely,” Ricci told the outlet. “He is trying to show me that it is safe to have those things.”
