Actress Malin Akerman says leaving Los Angeles for Connecticut gave her 13-year-old son the kind of unsupervised, outdoor childhood that used to be normal in America and is now rare.
Akerman, 48, discussed the move on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, describing her son as “a nature boy through and through.” She recounted a call with her husband about their son’s whereabouts: “I called my husband yesterday. I was like, ‘What are you guys doing?’ He’s like, ‘I haven’t seen our son for five hours. He’s out with the neighborhood kids biking with their fishing rods on their bikes, going to different ponds and fishing.'”
“It is a dream,” Akerman said of the arrangement.
Host Alexandra Cooper pointed out that Akerman’s son doesn’t come across as a “tablet kid.” Akerman agreed that was the goal. “That’s what we wanted,” she said. “We’re like, ‘What? We’re going back to the ’50s? This is amazing.'”
She added that the family’s proximity to New York lets her get a dose of city life whenever she wants it: “And I get to go into New York whenever I need that little kick.”
Akerman, who grew up in Canada before working as a model and in commercials on her way to an acting career, shares her son with first husband Roberto Zincone, an Italian musician. She later married British actor Jack Donnelly in 2018.
Her breakout came in 2007 opposite Ben Stiller in “The Heartbreak Kid,” followed by roles in “27 Dresses,” “Watchmen,” “Rock of Ages” and “Billions.” She’s drawn a new wave of attention playing Margo Banks in Netflix’s “The Hunting Wives” alongside Brittany Snow, with the show’s second season set to premiere Nov. 26.
