Interview: Darin Brooks & Kelly Kruger on Parenting, Talking to B&B Cast & the New Normal Ahead
Staying at home with a 7-month-old under quarantine is par for the course for many moms.
When you call Kelly Kruger (The Young and the Restless, Mackenzie; The Bold and the Beautiful, Eva) and Darin Brooks (The Bold and the Beautiful, Wyatt; Days of our Lives, Max) these days, you’re almost guaranteed to hear a couple of other voices on the line. That’s because, as Soaps.com discovered when we chatted with the quarantining couple (who wed in 2016), their 7-month-old daughter Everleigh Jolie loves to get into the act by gurgling in the background… and so does their dog (though that’s more about barking)!
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Soaps.com: So, the eternal question: How’s quarantine going for you, especially now that you’re parents?
Kelly Kruger: For me personally, there’s no difference between quarantine and being a new mom. I tell people I’ve been in quarantine since September! I feel like Everleigh’s missing out on a lot, but the truth is I’d have been back at work at this point. So the time that we get to be together as a family is important, and I’m breastfeeding and would have stopped by now if I had to go back to work. So I’m looking at the positives.
Darin Brooks: We want to take Everleigh on hikes and stuff – that’s what we’d be doing on weekends when we have free time. And we’d planned to go to Hawaii [where Brooks is from] to see my family on Spring break, and we can’t. Kelly’s mom lives [in Los Angeles] but works in a doctor’s office, so we have to say “hi” to her through windows and screens.
Kruger: We FaceTime, but it’s not the same. They want to hold her!
Soaps.com: How do you keep from getting in one another’s hair? Love is one thing, but…
Brooks: She’s laughing because I don’t know if we’ve figured that out yet.
Kruger: Couples who survive quarantine will definitely be together forever. This is a true test of marriages and relationships. We have our moments, but we get through them.
Brooks: And you do as the warden says.
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Soaps.com: What do you think you’ve learned about yourselves as parents so far?
Brooks: Kelly has been the greatest mom. That’s what I’ve learned. I’m impressed with everything.
Kruger: Not to be cheesy, but Darin has been an amazing dad – very hands-on. That’s a benefit of his being home right now, he’s so present. I don’t know what I did with my free time before I had a baby. I also didn’t know it was possible to function at this level. I’m more productive now than before I had a baby! She’s a good sleeper, but she doesn’t nap during the day so I don’t have much time for myself during the day. Also, we look at her sometimes and we didn’t know it was possible to have these feelings. You can’t truly understand it until you see and experience it.
FaceTime giggles and keeping busy
Soaps.com: Kelly, I know you’re filming tutorials and funny videos in relation to your blog, Madison Charles, and your essential oil line by the same name – but Darin, are you keeping in touch with your castmates in some way?
Brooks: Don [Diamont, Bill Spencer Jr.] is really funny, trying to FaceTime. I give him a hard time. Thorsten [Kaye, Ridge] called the other day. We’re trying to do a Friday happy hour Zoom chat with eight or ten people, so everyone says “hi” and gets to see Everleigh. But we miss being on set and shooting. It’s going to be so interesting to see what the new normal will be.
Soaps.com: Kelly, you made a Hallmark movie last year, From Friend to Fiancé, and also shot the adorable A Very Corgi Christmas. What’s fun about making those romantic or family films?
Kruger: It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. Before getting pregnant I told Darin that all I wanted to do was the darker stuff, to go those places as an actor – and then I shot the Hallmark movie, and it was the most fun I ever had. We were laughing all the time. For Corgi I was early in my pregnancy with Everleigh, and everyone was laughing and happy and when I came home I said to Darin that all I want to do was Hallmark movies.
Brooks: And we can now watch that movie every Christmas and tell Everleigh, “You were in Mommy’s tummy in that movie!”
Looking to the future, with sushi
Soaps.com: You both were on Bold and Beautiful together, but didn’t have many shared scenes. Are you hoping to co-star properly with one another in the future?
Kruger: We love working together!
Brooks: We love it. We went to the same acting class together, and it’d be fun to do something together again. You know, it would make a great Hallmark movie.
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Soaps.com: What’s the first thing you’ll do once you can bust out into the world and start hugging people again?
Brooks: Kelly wants to have sushi.
Kruger: Yeah, sushi with our parents. And I want to take Everleigh to the beach.
Brooks: Right, get in the water with her. My dad is like 70-something and he goes surfing every day, even now – he lives across from the beach. So we’d want to go to Hawaii for a couple weeks.
Kruger: I can’t wait for Everleigh to feel the sand and put her feet in the water. Right after hugging my mom.
