Brooke Shields’ daughter’s birthday surprise turned into an emotional moment for her whole family.
After the actress’ husband, Chris Henchy, seemingly couldn’t be home for their daughter Grier’s 19th birthday earlier this month, he surprised his wife and kids by crashing Grier’s birthday dinner.
“Dad of the century surprised @grierhhenchy for her birthday … but really he surprised me and @rowanhenchyy too!!!” Shields, 59, captioned a video of the heartfelt moment via Instagram on Thursday, April 24. “We all cried … he said it was just a flight ❤️.”
In the clip, Shields and her kids’ faces were red as Henchy, 61, entered the restaurant. Grier wiped tears away from her eyes before Shields got up from her seat to share a hug and kiss with her husband.
Shields’ fans and celebrity followers gushed over the sweet reunion in the post’s comments section. “SO SWEET!” Heather Dubrow wrote underneath the post, while Melissa McCarthy’s husband, Ben Falcone, joked, “I feel like i should get a lot of credit for keeping this a secret. not QUITE as much as Henchy for doing it … but maybe 85 percent as much?”
Shields said “I do” with Henchy two years after she and Andre Agassi ended their two-year marriage in 1999. The spouses became parents with the birth of their eldest daughter, Rowan, in 2003, followed by Grier in 2006.
Shields celebrated her youngest child’s birthday with a sweet Instagram birthday tribute earlier this month. “My baby isn’t a baby anymore 🥹🩷 Happy 19th birthday, Grier!” she captioned photos of herself and Grier from over the years on April 18. “I love you, and I’m so proud to be your mom. Xx.”
In her January memoir, Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old: Thoughts on Aging as a Woman, Shields recalled how her “stunning girls” have begun to get more “admiring looks” than her in public, feeling “protectiveness, pride [and] melancholy” as a result. She opened up about her kids’ newfound attention in her exclusive Us Weekly cover story that same month.
“This stage is really so many things all at once. I wanted that to somehow be expressed,” she told Us. “The conflicts that we feel — they hit you all at once. I think it happens with motherhood as well. There’s such protection, such pride and joy, and then it’s a reflection back on what you are no longer, technically.”
She also shared the secret to her long-lasting marriage with Henchy in an exclusive interview with Us in May 2024. “Always have forgiveness in your heart, but make sure that you communicate about it,” she explained. “Don’t just give forgiveness and say, ‘Oh, well, I guess this is the way it is.’ Or, ‘Oh, I’ll forgive that behavior,’ or [do it] just to keep the peace.”
Shields continued, “Instead of pointing the finger, like, ‘You made me feel like this,’ just [change] the vernacular [to], ‘I got to be honest. I really felt like this when that happened, what was going on with you?’”
She also noted that the only way two people can move forward from conflict is by having an “understanding of communication and empathy,” adding, “And then you decide if you really want to forgive the person, but to just forgive blindly so that you stay together? It’s going to implode one day. That is my opinion.”
