Before Vanessa and Nick Lachey welcomed their first child, son Camden, 9, back in 2012, they were already clear that they wanted to raise him with an open heart and with the freedom to find “true love” in “whatever capacity.” The star of NCIS: Hawaii, who co-hosts The Ultimatum: Marry Or Move On, with her husband of 11 years, opened up about her parenting style, while promoting the new non-drowsy over-the-counter medication Allegra Hives. “Nick and I had this conversation when I was pregnant with Camden ten years ago, he’s going to be 10 in September, and it’s not so much a specific conversation about things, but we do talk about just love, being love,” the 41-year-old actress told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY.
“I don’t say, ‘When you grew up and you get married to your wife’, I say ‘When you grow up and you find love and you guys want to have a family.’ I don’t want to put it in his head a certain way, I want him to be able to tell me ‘Oh, I met this girl and I’m in love with her’, or ‘Oh, I met this guy and I’m in love with him.’”
Vanessa, who also share son Phoenix, 5, and daughter Brooklyn, 7, with Nick, 48, emphasized that their parenting style is all about being supportive. “For me and Nick, phase one of the family is knowing yourself, knowing your creativity. If they’re like. I want to wear this color, or do that, whatever they want to do, we support. I just want to make sure that they know who they are. And then they can find their true love, in whatever capacity that is.”
“So for us, they’re still young and you know, they do ask about certain people that have two mommies, or two daddies, and we just go back to talking about love is love, and people find it in all different ways, and it’s a beautiful thing,” the Love Is Blind co-host continued. “It’s whatever you feel, and whatever makes you happy and whatever makes you excited. And so that’s definitely something that we talked about when we were pregnant and we continue to nurture.”
“And, I’m excited to hear one day when he is in love. And, whoever it is, boy or girl, they better watch out because he’s my baby boy, and I’m a Mama Bear. I literally look at him now and I swear he went from being a nine-year-old to being nineteen. I’m like, ‘Why are you so big?’ I still cuddle him and I still kiss him, but I’ve noticed that when he kisses me when we’re out, and not in the house, he looks left and right, to see who’s watching. And he’s literally said to me when I’m dancing in the car, ‘Mom, don’t be that mom”, oh I am that mom.”
The super busy mom-of-three revealed during the chat that she’s suffered for years with chronic hives, a painful skin condition that causes raised welts — and she’s finally found a way to keep the attacks away with Allegra Hives “When I get hit with hives it could be anywhere from you know a mild case, to a very severe one, where I’m in tears crying because it’s that bad,” she explained. “I have been dealing with hives my entire life, I have vivid memories of when I was eight, of just being so uncomfortable, of crying waking my dad up in the middle of the night, not knowing what to do and him putting me in an ice bath because that’s what the guy on the phone said to do. And then the stinky lotion that was, you know, hot pink and I’m like okay, this is not really working. I’ve just gone my whole life dealing with it, not knowing what triggers it, not knowing when it’s gonna come. Some attacks last a couple hours, or days and I’ve had some that have lasted weeks.”
Vanessa raved about finally finding relief with Allegra’s brand new over the counter solution, calling it a “game changer” for her recent family vacation to the East Coast. “There’s finally relief. Allegra Hives is the very first over the counter oral-medication that is non-drowsy and gives you 24-hour relief, working from the inside out to relieve all of the itchiness that you get from hives and reduce the actual hives themselves. This is my new mommy-tip that I’m telling everyone. Put this in your first aid kit. Put this in your little side dopp kit, bring it everywhere you go because if you are a hives sufferer then this is going to give you that relief that you need. And it’s non-drowsy, so you can still go about your day. It’s like it is the most exciting thing that I’ve discovered and I’m literally shouting it from the rooftops.” Allegra Hives will be available nationwide in August.