Sarah Rafferty is teasing an emotional season of My Life With the Walter Boys ahead — and she had plenty of personal material to draw inspiration from.
“Boy, having one of my two daughters leaving this nest this fall definitely made me deeply in touch with my emotions. They were very available to me on screen this fall when we were shooting,” Rafferty, 53, told Us exclusively while discussing her partnership with Eli Lilly and Company earlier this month.
Rafferty shares two children with husband Santtu Seppälä: Oona, 19, and 14-year-old Iris. She posted a photo of her eldest daughter heading off to college via Instagram in August.
The major transition in Rafferty’s family coincided with her filming Walter Boys season 4, during which her character, Dr. Katherine Walter, has to grapple with the fallout of the previous season’s cliffhanger: her son Cole’s life hanging in the balance after a car crash.
“I love how heart-centered [Katherine] is, and how since she was somebody who was adopted, and she has adopted children as well, that she really wants everybody to feel like they belong, and that’s a beautiful thing to play,” the actress told Us. “There are moments in there that feel like a little love letter to my own kids, moments that are really based on interactions that I’ve had with them. So it really means a lot to me to be playing this at this moment in my life.”
While she remained tight-lipped about what fans can expect from season 4 of the hit Netflix drama, Rafferty teased, “I think it’s going to be really exciting. The show just keeps getting more and more beautiful every season.”
As for the explosive season 3 finale, she dished, “There’s more where that came from.”
Like her character on the show, Rafferty has been intentional when it comes to discussing difficult topics with her children — including her family’s experience with Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
“It was a little harder when they were younger and they were noticing the changes in their grandfather. That’s for sure. It was heartbreaking,” Rafferty told Us of her approach to discussing her grandmother and father’s AD diagnoses with her two children. “But then again, it does lead to these positive, optimistic conversations.”
The former Suits star is partnering with Eli Lilly and Company to raise awareness around early symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease (ESAD), which can be treated by Kisunla, an amyloid-targeting treatment.
“This is a cause near and dear to my heart,” she told Us. “When I first started talking about Alzheimer’s more than a decade ago, I was talking a lot about how there weren’t a lot of options available to my father and grandmother, and now things have changed, and there are options available.”
The “Sidebar: A Suits Watch Podcast” cohost added, “I was really excited to partner with Kisunla to encourage people who are having memory or thinking issues, or who are seeing that in a loved one, to have a conversation early with their doctor because the earlier they act, the more options they may have.”
