The actress calls the project a 'love letter' to her own mom, who died in 2012.
Introducing, Jennifer Love Hewitt's kids! The 9-1-1 actress has shared the first official image of her three children's faces as they're featured prominently on the cover of her new book.
On Wednesday, Hewitt posted the cover artwork for Inheriting Magic: My Journey Through Grief, Joy, Celebration, And Making Every Day Magical. The whimsical art was created by digital artist Vanessa Rivera and shows the 45-year-old actress seated while holding a wand in one hand and a book in the other. She's surrounded by her kids -- 10-year-old Autumn, 8-year-old Atticus, and 2-year-old Aidan, whom she shares with husband Brian Hallisay -- and a collection of nostalgic holiday decor.
"Here it is! My new baby!" Hewitt gushed in her caption. "This incredible cover was done by an angel @the_life_of_aivax I can’t believe how lucky I was to get her for this book! Moms who create magic are special! And she is a magic maker for sure. Can’t wait for you guys to read it! @benbellabooks"
Hewitt took to her Instagram Story to address more about what fans can expect to find in the pages of her book.
"It is a love letter to my mom [Patricia Mae Hewitt]," she begins her video. "It is a little bit of a memoir. It's my journey through grief and how in grief I was afraid that I had lost magic in my life, only to find more magic. How my kids have inspired me to create magic every day."
She noted that fans will get a closer look at the birthday parties she has thrown for her kids, as well as an inside look at "what our life is."
Ultimately, Hewitt hopes her story will inspire fellow moms.
"That magic can be whatever magic means to you, whatever special things you can do," she says. "I know as moms, we're busy. It's hard to do anything extra some days. I had that this morning when I forgot to make school lunches, truth be told, so I get it. But a little extra thought, a little extra using your heart, creates magical memories for your kids. It creates magical memories for you. You will remember them forever."
As for the title, she's calling that an official tribute to her later mother, Patricia, who died of cancer in 2012.
"I inherited magic from my favorite person in the world, my mommy, who I miss every day," she says.
Inheriting Magic, from Penguin Random House, is available now for pre-order.
As for the stunning cover art, Hewitt reveals on her Instagram Story that she discovered the artist Rivera one morning while browsing Pinterest.
"I saw her pictures that she was creating with her family, saw some of her stories, I loved her vibe," Hewitt gushes. "She seemed like a magical making mom."
Hewitt reached out to tell Rivera about the book and, she says, "We connected as moms and she agreed to do this incredible cover."
A peek at Rivera's Instagram page reveals fascinating details behind her process, which involves initial photography followed by hundreds of Photoshop layers to achieve dream-like results.
While Hewitt had previously kept her kids' images under wraps, the actress was open about her experiences as a mother when chatting with ET in 2022.
Shortly after Hewitt welcomed her third child, ET caught up with the actress about her emotional return to the set of 9-1-1. At the time, she was portraying a new mom struggling with an extreme case of postpartum depression.
"What made this part interesting is having to go back to work with a four-and-a-half-month-old, five-month-old baby," she reflected. "I was so very much in my own postpartum journey. Having to play Maddie in the middle of hers, which is a little bit different than mine, but having to do that every day -- it was really hard. But it was also very cathartic and really interesting. I feel it kind of helped me in my own journey, sort of pushed through faster and be able to have a place to put it and to understand all those things that we could go through as women."
While giving it her all on set, she was equally committed to keeping the magic alive at home.
"It was scary for sure because I was like, 'Wow, this is intense.' I know the storyline a little too well at the moment... and being a mom with two other kids, you have to come home from doing all that stuff during the day and then you have to be smiley and have rainbows shooting out of your eyeballs because they need joy and happiness," Hewitt admitted. "It was a lot to balance, but it was very, very important to me, for the audience, to tell the story. For women out there to tell the story and the story really handles more than just postpartum depression. It handles depression in general and it handles people that feel maybe suicide is an option for them. We really run the gamut. We talk about all of the things that wrap back into the story and it was very important."
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