‘Mad About You’ Star Helen Hunt Says Her Best Parenting Advice Is to Simply ‘Tell the Truth’

Mom of two Helen Hunt is all about being a great parent to her kids — son Emmett, about 21, and daughter Makena, 15! Her secret? Well, it’s actually quite simple. “Tell the truth,” she exclusively told Closer Weekly at a recent Mad About You event during PaleyFest Fall TV Previews.

In the interview, Helen, 56, also opened up about working with costar Paul Reiser again in the reboot. “It was as if no time had passed,” she gushed. “I think we are very committed to saying what we think and really listing to the other person [and] trying things out. You know, you’ve got to make a room that is safe enough for people to throw out good ideas and bad ideas. I hope we have done that.”

The Mad About You reboot is set to premiere this fall and Helen admits that she and Paul were both unsure if they wanted to commit themselves to the remake. “We had a lot of lunches together, and both of us the same amount were 100 percent sure we would never do it,” Helen explained. “Then we had lunch one day and we got home and we had emailed each other at the same moment and we said, ‘Are we crazy? Maybe this is an interesting idea.'”

After much contemplation, Helen and Paul both knew that they couldn’t pass this opportunity up. In order for them to return, they came up with a really interesting storyline that fans will love to watch.

“We realized that their daughter would be leaving home right now in real time. We thought, That’s not a boring idea to look at what this couple would be like after investing 18 years in somebody who leaves,” Helen said. “That seemed interesting.”

With Paul and Helen on board, the project was ready to go. Now we’re completely losing our minds that one of our favorite ’90s shows will be returning to the small screen before we know it.

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