Despite being advised it was “too late” to have a child at 54, actor Donna Mills refused to abandon her ambition of being a mother.
The Knots Landing diva “realized there was something missing” in her life, which inspired her decision to leave a successful Hollywood job to raise her adopted daughter, Chloe.
The happy octogenarian recently stated that her “darling girl” is expecting a baby, and the 83-year-old celebrity “can’t wait to meet the little guy.”
Donna Mills has had a successful and consistent career in Hollywood since her breakout appearance in Clint Eastwood’s 1971 directorial debut, Play Misty for Me.
She rose to prominence after playing the famous villain Abby Fairgate on the classic primetime serial opera Knots Landing, for which she won an award.
After leaving the role that people loved to loathe, the actor participated in a number of other TV shows, including the two-part series finale in 1993.
When she was 54, Mills recognized she had a “big hole” in her life and chose to pursue a more personal goal.
“I was very concentrated on my career, but at a certain point, I realized there was something missing – It was a child,” Mills, now 83, told People in 2022. “So, I went after it. I adopted [Chloe] when she was four days old.”
However, she experienced a barrage of suspicion and condemnation, with many doubting her decision to raise a little child at her age.
“By that time, I was 54 and people said, ‘You’re going to be so old [to] have a little toddler running around.’ I never felt that,” she recalls. “I never felt older than the other mothers who were probably in their 20s.”
Mills was completely committed to being a present mother, taking an 18-year break from Hollywood to raise her daughter.
“I didn’t work,” Mills says. “Well, the first couple of years, I did work. I did some movies for television and stuff like that, because I could take her wherever I went. But then when [Chloe] started school, I wasn’t going to go out of town for two months at a time. And I didn’t become a mother to give her to a nanny.”
Today, the NOPE actress and Chloe are very close, with matching heart tattoos on their wrists, and Mills describes parenting as an amazing happiness.
“Being a mother gives you a depth of feeling you didn’t know existed until you hold that baby in your arms. And now I feel it every time I see her, every time we hug and laugh and do silly stuff together,” the doting mother shares in an Instagram post dedicated to her daughter on Mother’s Day 2023.
The post continues, “As she said to me when she was two years old, ‘Mommy, our heartstrings are tied together.’ They are my darling girl, and they always will be.”
On October 6, 2024, the Gunsmoke star announced on Instagram that her lovely “baby girl” is pregnant with Mills’ first grandson.
“My baby girl is having a baby!!” Mills writes in the post that includes a series of images from Chloe’s baby shower. “And we gave her the shower of her dreams. Can’t wait to meet the little guy. I know I’ll love him as much as I love her.”
A few days before Mills uploaded her message, Chloe, 30, and her husband Travis Collings made their announcement on social media.
“Baby Boy Collings coming in 2025,” the couple captioned the post, which includes an image of Chloe on the beach, cradling her baby bump.
Mills has repeatedly stated that adopting Chloe was the best decision she ever made, and that she finds joy in motherhood despite cultural expectations or conventions. She has shown that age is no barrier to developing a meaningful and loving relationship with a child.
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And she says she’s glad she didn’t listen to all the rumors about her being too old at 54 to have a child.
“If you want to give to your career, I say having a child later in life is better than having a child early,” Mills says, encouraging other career-driven women to consider waiting before starting a family.
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