Ann Dowd Reveals the Thing She Is Most Proud of Is Her Family: ‘This Is What I Love’

Ann Dowd may be an Emmy winner for her work on Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, but she values family over all else.

“I’m of course most proud of my family,” Ann, 63, exclusively told Closer Weekly at the New York Women in Film & Television Muse Awards on Tuesday, December 10, when asked what she is most proudest of in her life.

The fact that she loves her brood is important because Ann has a big one. In addition to her husband of 35 years, fellow actor Lawrence “Larry” Arancio, and their three children — Liam, Emily and Trust — Ann has half a dozen siblings.

“We’re going to Massachusetts with my family. I’m one of seven,” the Compliance star detailed of holiday plans. “We will all meet with our families and my mother and we will have a wonderful time. We used to go to my mother’s home, which is where we grew up. For some reason my family from New York would celebrate there, whereas the rest would come after they’ve celebrated in their homes in Massachusetts. That was fantastic, but now we do it at an inn because the home has been sold. It was just a sweet little thing we do amongst ourselves. It’s just very intimate and lovely.”

Aside from her kin, The Leftovers actress admitted she is also proud of “knowing the way through is to hang in and never doubt.” While it’s an important lesson, it’s not one that she learned overnight. It came to her “over time.”

“When it gets difficult and you sit down and you say, ‘OK, well, what are we going to do here? What is fueling this?'” she explained about coming to understand herself better. And you realize this is what I love, these are the gifts I came with and, for better or for worse, these are the gifts I will stay with and I trust that there was a place for me at this table.”

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