How is life as a mom of a 16-year-old and an infant daughter? Super. Audra McDonald talks with PEOPLE exclusively about giving birth to her daughter, Sally James, sixteen years after becoming a mom for the first time to her oldest child, Zoe.
“If you wanna make me melt, just put my two daughters together, and I’m a puddle,” Audra reveals. The Beauty and the Beast star goes on to share her birthing experience the second time around.
“While I was giving birth to Sally James, Zoe wasn’t planning on being in the hospital room, but she got too curious so she came in,” McDonald explains. “I was so worried about her being overwhelmed that literally, as I was pushing out Sally, I was looking over at Zoe saying, ‘Are you okay? Is there anything you need from me, are you okay?’ And Zoe kept saying, ‘Mom, would you just concentrate on having the baby!’ But I was literally trying to give birth and parent at the same time.”
Audra doesn’t worry as much now that Sally is here. “In some ways, I don’t worry about her — this is a very strong personality, I’m seeing it already,” McDonald says of her infant child. “This is someone who’s not gonna let anybody walk over her at all. In fact, she’ll be the one doing the walking.”
Audra McDonald and husband Will Swenson welcomed Sally on October 16, 2016. Zoe is Audra’s daughter from previous relations.
Photo: PEOPLE
