Brooke Shields Cries As Daughter Grier Leaves for College: ‘I’m an Empty Nester’

Brooke Shields is officially an empty nester.

The Pretty Baby star, 59, took to Instagram on Monday, August 26, to reveal that her daughter, Grier , 18, has left for college. Grier follows in her older sister Rowan ’s footsteps by attending Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Shields filmed herself on her front porch and broke down in tears as she told fans, “I sat here a year ago and I watched my big girl leave, and I’m back on this porch and I am now officially an empty nester.”

“It’s not easy for the moms,” continued Shields, who shares Grier and Rowan with her husband Chris Henchy . “It’s just so weird. So weird that she’s not here.”

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“It was really hard and then she started crying,” Shields said of dropping Grier off at college. “Then I really started crying. And then I cried a good portion of the ride home.”

“I’m an empty nester… Wow,” Shields concluded.

The actress captioned the post, “Both of my baby birds have left the nest 🪺😫🪹.”

Shields previously shared a humorous video of her dropping Grier off at college on Thursday, August 22, captioning it: “Start the car! Last one off to college 🥺”

Shields’ oldest daughter, Rowan, left for college in 2021, and the Blue Lagoon star described it as the “worst thing I’ve ever experienced in my life” during a November 2021 appearance on Live With Kelly and Ryan . “You want them to be happy… but you don’t want them to be happy,” she added. “It was the drive… it was the rearview mirror. When I saw the university go away [I cried].”

"She's really living her life, she's enjoying college, she's just really blossoming and growing,” Shields said of Rowan in an April 2022 interview with People . “I listen to the way they talk to each other and their friends and the things they're discussing, and you think, 'Wow, she's really her own person and I've done my best in my job and I'm going to try to get out of her way. Even though I want her to live with me for the rest of her life."

Brooke Shields and Chris Henchy’s Family Album With Daughters Rowan and Grier: Photos

In May, Shields shared the secret to her decades-long marriage to Henchy, whom she wed in 2001.

“Always have forgiveness in your heart, but make sure that you communicate about it,” Shields, 58, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting her new Netflix film, Mother of the Bride . “Don’t just give forgiveness and say, ‘Oh, well, I guess this is the way it is.’ Or, ‘Oh, I’ll forgive that behavior,’ or [do it] just to keep the peace.”