Tamera Mowry-Housley, 42, couldn’t be happier about Garcelle Beauvais, 53, joining The Real after her exit last July. “I think she’s fantastic,” Tamera told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY alongside her favorite new toy this holiday season, Squeakee the Balloon Dog, on Nov. 19. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star made her debut on the daytime series in September. “She’s beautiful, the girls love her. She’s been nothing but kind to me and my family. I wish the girls the best,” she added.
Tamera walked away from her co-hosting duties at The Real to embark on an exciting new partnership with Crown Media where she’ll be acting and hosting. Her new endeavor also will allow her to spend more time with her two kids, Aden, 8, and Ariah, 5. “I feel like saying goodbye to a place that was your family for so long is never easy, but you always have to follow your gut and family to me trumps everything,” Tamera said of the hard decision. “And I think what really solidified it, seeing my children’s eyes just when I would hop on that plane and seeing them well up and they’d be like, “We’re going to miss you, mommy! Don’t go, mommy!” so now, I honestly feel like I have the best of both worlds.”
On the acting front, Tamera is also remaining hopeful when it comes to a reboot of Sister, Sister, the show that made her a star with real life twin Tia Mowry, 42. “There’s a possibility!” Tamera teased. “If it were up to Tia and I, and we had the most amazing idea, 100 percent. Oh my goodness — If it were up to me, we would’ve had 3 special, I would say, movies or a reboot of Sister, Sister.’ I feel like it’s brewing though. Something has to happen.”
The show, which debuted in April 1994, centered around Tamera and identical twin sister Tia. The two were separated at birth and adopted by a single mom, played by Jackee Harry, 64, and a widowed father, played by actor Tim Reid, 75. The two accidentally found one another when they were 14 and the single parents moved in together so the girls could grow up in the same home.
In September, Netflix released all 6 seasons of the hit show and Tamera is thrilled it has a new following, giving her even more reason to push this reboot forward! “Netflix, the show, has just blown up,” Tamera said. “Thank God to Netflix airing it again. And to see a whole new generation fall in love with the show, I am so honored. I’m so grateful. It’s become this American classic and I would love it. I know Tia would love it, too.”
But in order to push this project forward, the busy sisters have to have the time to make it perfect. “It’s a good problem to have when we’re both so freaking busy,” Tamera revealed. “But not only that. I always use Goonies as a perfect example, right? Goonies was one of my favorite movies ever. If you’re going to do a reunion of Goonies or a Sister Sister, it’s got to be 100. It can’t even be 99.5 and if it’s not 100, the idea, the timing, everything. I think we’re just going to leave it so that people can remember it, how bomb it was. You don’t want to come back and fall flat and that’s what people remember. So that’s what we’re working up against.”
Now that she has more time to spend at home, Tamera is relishing in playing with her kids as much as she can. And just in time for the holiday season, this includes the family’s new interactive pet that’s part robot dog, part balloon dog, Squeakee. “Squeakee the balloon dog is the cutest thing I have ever seen,” Tamera said of the adorable red dog which is available for $59.99 at Amazon, Target, Walmart and other major retailers wherever toys are sold. “It goes and it goes and it’s one reason why I love Squeekee as a parent. I have two children that absolutely love this one of a kind dog. It’s part balloon dog, part robot dog, but they can sit there and play with the dog for hours.”