How much of the journey with your third pregnancy will viewers see in the new season?
So I definitely grow the whole time, because by the end of the season, I was nine months pregnant. It was wild to be pregnant through that whole process, but such a beautiful thing to get to document that pregnancy with our family show. We even have the birth there, which is so wild. I did have my boundaries. I didn't want any producer or any actual camera person in the room, but Christian can film it on the phone, and if we get anything good, then we'll use it, and if not, we won't. And there's some gems in there, for sure.
Were there challenges to pregnant while filming?
Yes, certainly. It was the heat of the summer, and we were doing all these crazy things, so it was a very humbling experience. It was really fun. Mary Kate, my sister in law, just had twins, and she was like, "I cannot imagine if we were still filming, doing all these things like you did when you were pregnant." I was like, "Well, I just had one." But yeah, there were some things I had to sit out of. Like in the Phil tribute, they did a recliner race, and I was like, "Yeah, I'm not doing that."
How's your dad doing with even more grandkids to wrangle? That was a highlight of last season, watching him try to babysit all of them at once.
He's the best grandpa. Something has peaked in the grandpa era of his life. I will say he is even more fun than he was as a dad, no offense.
I was like, “You did not do that stuff with me,” but that's okay, I'm not bitter. I'm just glad you're doing that for Honey, Haven and Kit. And my girls adore him and it's so sweet.
Have the girls gotten a taste of stardom yet? Do they love the camera?
They're so funny. They do. We'll be in public and people will come up and ask to take a picture with me, and Honey will be like, “I want to be in the picture too!” She's always like, “Excuse me, hello, I'm right here.” And I love that about her. I love their little confidence, and I love that they're enjoying it, and it's very sweet. They are funny kids.
How different is it to be a mom of three versus two?
The other day at this wedding, it was me and this other mom, and I'm with my third and she's with her first. We're outside rocking the babies. She's like, “I don't want to complain, because I know it's so much harder for you with three.” And I said, “No girl, it's way harder with one.” Because with your first, you don't know what you're doing, so you're stressed out. By your third, it's a little crazier, but you're confident. So to me, I feel it gets easier. Christian, he'd be like, “False, wrong, way harder with three.” I think as the mom you just get more confident, so I feel better, but Christian says it's the most chaos for him.
How did you go about honoring Phil this season? He died so close to the beginning of last season.
Yeah, actually it was very crazy. We really felt God's timing of like, okay, he passed, but he passed on his legacy. We're so grateful that we get to carry it on.
What is it like to continue on with the show after he's gone?
With Alzheimer's and dementia, it's something that is unfortunately such a long process, so I felt we already kind of had to start doing it with the first season. He already was not himself, so he wasn't there the first season, so we already had a taste of what that would look like. But the last thing he said to me—which was really significant, because he was not really communicating very well at the end, and even when he could communicate, it didn't really make much sense—but when he saw me, he tried to sit up and got excited, and he said, “Full strength ahead.” And I think that had two messages for me: For him, there's full strength ahead like he knew where he was going, and knew he was going to heaven and it was going to be better. But then for us, full strength ahead, keep going. Keep doing what you're called to do, keep living the way that you're called to live, and I think about that sometimes when I'm doing things that remind me of things he did.
On the original Duck Dynasty, you were a kid, but now you're an adult with your own kids. How does that change your experience with the show?
It was hard, honestly. As the kid on the show, it was really easy. I was like, this is my life, cool, thanks mom and dad. As the adult, it's a lot harder. You're responsible for a lot, you're carrying a lot. I have a full-time job and I'm a full-time mom, and to add a full-time TV show sounded a little bit crazy to me, but it felt positive enough to say “yes” to it. But I will say that it was a lot harder and something my mom really helped me with. This time around, my mom was a mentor to me. I didn't realize what my mom went through the first time around that I couldn't have known about until I became a mom. I didn't know the decisions she was making and the things she was faced with until I became one, so my mom has mentored me through it. She's been the best friend through it all, and it's been really fun to do together. So fun. I'm so glad we said yes to it all, and I'm very thankful for that.
Can you talk about some of the other stuff we'll see this season?
Oh, there's a lot of fun, for sure. We have a lot of competitions and shenanigans. The second episode is a cake bake off, and you would think that was all just for fun. But no, my siblings still bring that up and are still bitter about who won. I won't say who won, but they still hate me for it, and they're mad at dad for choosing me. People will think that's just for the show, but that is very real, and they will probably be bringing that up until we're 50 years old.
What kind of cake did you make?
Well, that's the problem. My cake was absolutely ugly, but it tasted good. And my siblings are very artsy and super good at baking. Like, Rebecca did fashion design, Bella was an art major, Mary Kate is so artsy. I'm not. I'm not good at baking, but my flavors were there, and that's all dad cared about, and they're so mad about it. I get it. It's painful.
