Jennifer Love Hewitt Is 'Really Proud'The Holiday JunkieDeals with Grief at Christmas (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Jennifer Love Hewitt in ‘The Holiday Junkie’.Photo:Courtesy of Lifetime

Courtesy of Lifetime

For her new Lifetime Christmas movieThe Holiday Junkie,Jennifer Love Hewittenlisted her husbandBrian Hallisayto play her onscreen love interest — and when the actress told their 11-year-old daughter Autumn about the plans, she was met with an unexpectedly hilarious reaction.

“The first thing she said was, ‘Mommy is he going to be nice to you this time?'” Hewitt, 45, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue, on newsstands Friday. “I was like, ‘Yes, sweetie, it’s a Christmas miracle. He’s playing a kind character to me.'”

“OnThe Client List, obviously he wasn’t kind, and then in9-1-1,for sure, not kind,” she says. “So it was really funny. My daughter was super psyched that daddy was going to be nice to me on screen.”

Jennifer Love Hewitt and husband Brian Hallisay on the set of ‘The Holiday Junkie’.Courtesy of Lifetime

“It was really fun to be in a movie honoring my mom with Brian because he does such a great job of honoring her in our life, even though he only met her once,” Hewitt says. “So it was special having him there. I’m really proud to be one of very few grief Christmas movies out there for people who feel things other than just joy at Christmas.”

Jennifer Love Hewitt and her mom Pat in 1996.Ron Galella Collection/Getty

Ron Galella Collection/Getty

Just like her new film, Hewitt channeled herjourney with griefinto her bookInheritingMagic: My Journey Through Grief, Joy, Celebration, and Making Every Day Magical,which also offers tips for making the everyday feel special.

“If you had asked me when my mom was still on the planet if I could live without her, I would’ve said no,” Hewitt says. “So I’m really proud of myself for the way that I handled grief after writing the book.”

Jennifer Love Hewitt’s new book Inheriting Magic.

To have both projects come out in the same week is “wild,” Hewitt says. “I feel like it’s my mother up in the sky going, ‘Okay, let’s make this work, guys.’ It’s a very ‘her’ thing to do.”

“Now, having written the book and doing the movie, I feel so much closer to her in some weird way because I feel like she is watching and knows that she’s being celebrated on such a big level,” she continues. “I had a good cry about her a couple of days ago, just missing her and wishing that she was here to see all this actually happen, but the grief is in a better place now.”

As she looks forward to 2025, Hewitt is following new dreams, including expanding “Holiday Junkie” into a full-blown brand. She’s also eyeing a return in the upcomingI Know What You Did Last Summerreboot. (She starred as final girl Julie James in the original 1997 film.)

“I’d love to say that I finally signed on toI Know What You Did Last Summer, but I can’t yet,” she says. “It’s been complicated because of my9-1-1schedule. I’m going to manifest that.”

Jennifer Love Hewitt on the set of ‘The Holiday Junkie’ with her kids, Autumn and Atticus.Courtesy of Lifetime

In the meantime, she’s taking stock of everything she worked for over the past year.

“When I sat down with my vision board for 2024, this is what I wanted,” she says. “I wanted all of these things to happen. I’m able to be a mom and able to be this person that people have known me as for a long time, but shifting it into a way that they both come together. So I’m feeling very excited and super grateful.”

The Holiday Junkiepremieres on Saturday, Dec. 14 a 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime.

source: people.com