Working Mother – August 2019

20 Workingmother.com| AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019

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From Sister,

Sister to Family

Reunion, the

line between

TV and real life

is all relative

for Tia Mowry-

Hardrict.

wasn’t expecting to cry. But while

shooting a scene for her new sitcom,

Family Reunion, the tears fl owed when

co-star Loretta Devine started singing

gospels. “I’ve lived this,” the mom of two

says about the moment when one of her on-screen

daughters is baptized on the Netfl ix show, which

debuted on July 10. “I grew up in the church. My

grandmother was an evangelist.”

That’s just one of the many parallels between

Tia and her character, Cocoa McKellan, who’s also

a working mom. But fi rst, some key diff erences:

Tia, an actress and lifestyle expert, shares Cree, 8,

and Cairo, 1, with actor-husband Cory Hardrict.

Cocoa, on the other hand, is a mom of four and an

Etsy-shop-owning jewelry designer married to a

retired football player named Moz, short for Moses.

The fi ctional sextet call Seattle home (the

Hardricts are Los Angeles-based) until they

relocate to a tiny town in Georgia to be close to

relatives. Really close. Cocoa and clan move in

with traditional, churchgoing M’Dear (played by

Devine) and hubby Jebediah (played by Richard

Roundtree, aka the original Shaft). But Cocoa’s

more-modern parenting style doesn’t jibe with

M’Dear’s spare-the-rod-spoil-the-child philosophy.

Confl ict and hilarity ensue, with a vibe reminiscent

BY MEREDITH BODGAS

MOWRY LOVES

CORYTia hopes

her children inherit

their dad’s calm,

nurturing ways—but

not his perpetual

lateness!