So sweet! Reba McEntire played JoAnna Garcia’s mom on Reba for six seasons, and now the country singer hangs out with her former costar’s kids.
“She’s very much Auntie Reba,” Garcia, 39, told Us Weekly exclusively of the country singer, 64, last week at the Step Up Inspiration Awards. “She spoils quite a bit. She doesn’t babysit because when I see her, I want to be with her.”
The actress, who played Cheyenne Hart on the show, shares daughter Emerson, 6, and son Sailor, 2, with her husband, Nick Swisher, and her eldest reminds her a lot of herself.
“Even the way she walks around in her terrycloth robe, I’m like, ‘That’s me!’” the Once Upon a Time star told Us. “It’s a hot chocolate for her [and] a coffee for me.”
The Florida native added that her daughter is also “a big animal lover,” and the family of four has two bunnies, a Great Dane, a mutt dog, a cat named Prince Rainbow Sparkle and two ponies, with two goats in their future.
So how does the actress balance her career with her children — and her pets? “It takes a village,” Garcia told Us. “I rely heavily on my partnership with my husband, and my girls are always up for an adventure and willing to go on the road to the next location for me. When I’m working really long hours it’s just nice to know that my girls will come visit.”
She went on to say, “I think it’s really a balancing act. Some days, I think I’m killing it and some days I think I’m just failing at everything. But I think that’s just life, right?”
In May 2018, Garcia shared her thoughts with Us exclusively on baby No. 3. “If Nick will have the baby, I’m totally available,” she said at the time. ‘If Nick is willing to go through the last pregnancy, I’m in.”
With reporting by Nicole Pajer