Jennifer Love Hewitt Says Daughter, 11, Has 'Big Dreams' to Be on a Disney Show: 'She's a Very Good Manifester' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Jennifer Love Hewitt on the set of ‘The Holiday Junkie’ with her kids.Photo:Courtesy of Lifetime

Courtesy of Lifetime

History is repeating itself forJennifer Love Hewitt.

On Nov. 11, the actress’daughter Autumnearned her SAG card at age 10, just like Hewitt did 35 years ago. “I had this flash of my mom handing me my card at 10 years old,” Hewitt tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “I was dying, it was so cool.”

While Autumn — who turned 11 on Nov. 26 — is off to a strong start in the industry, Hewitt also has some trepidation about her daughter rushing into an acting career, due, in part, to her own experience as a teen idol in the ’90s.

“She’s a really happy, secure, amazing kid, and I want her to stay that way,” she says. “I think it would be good for her to wait a little bit, but she has big dreams of being a star on a Disney show, and she’s a very good manifester. I just may have to get out of the way like my mom did."

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Jennifer Love Hewitt with husband Brian Hallisay and children Atticus, Aidan, and Autumn.Courtesy Jennifer Love Hewitt

Courtesy Jennifer Love Hewitt

When she was 10, Hewitt moved to Los Angeles with her late mom Pat — who died of cancer at 67 in 2012 — after her star quality attracted attention in their native Texas.

“From the time that I was super little, I was very aware that entertaining was something that made people happy, and I loved making people happy,” she says. “My mom, I don’t think she would’ve chosen this for me, but she got out of my way and let me follow my dreams.”

After booking roles in commercials and on Disney Channel’sKids Incorporated, Hewitt broke through when she joined Fox’s teen dramaParty of Fivein season 2 as Sarah Reeves in 1995.

Jennifer Love Hewitt attends FOX Summer TCA 2018 All-Star Party at Soho House on August 2, 2018.Frazer Harrison/Getty

Frazer Harrison/Getty

Two years later she cemented her status when she landed the role of final girl Julie James inI Know What You Did Last Summer.

“My daughter is now aware that I was a big part of the ’90s, so she’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, you were the ’90s, you’re back again,’ " Hewitt recalls. “I’m like, ‘All right, that makes me feel really old.’"

As her star continued to rise in her teens and 20s, viewers began to look at Hewitt as a sex symbol, the implications of which she didn’t quite grasp at the time.

“I was pretty innocent,” she says. “I didn’t know anything about my sexuality, yet I was on the cover ofMaxim…I just knew that as I went along, the outfits at the photo shoots got smaller. Now I look back on it and go, ‘That’s intense.'”

As her three kids grow up, Hewitt — who also gives insight into her family life in hernew bookInheriting Magic: My Journey Through Grief, Joy, Celebration, and Making Every Day Magical— is happy they’ll have her and her husband as role models.

“Me and Brian have been together almost 13 years; that’s like 190 years in Hollywood,” Hewitt jokes. “I’m proud of that. I’m here to give them all the advice I’ve got, and so is their daddy.”

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source: people.com