Jennifer Love Hewitt Reveals Hugely Distressing Way She Learned About Mother's Death After Her Cancer Battle
Jennifer Love Hewitt learned about her mother's death through the news.
Nov. 18 2024, Published 8:41 p.m. ET
Jennifer Love Hewitt revealed the heartbreaking way she learned her mother, Patricia Mae Hewitt, passed away, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Jennifer Love Hewitt's mother, Patricia Mae Hewitt, died in 2012 from cancer.
“The part that I didn’t put in the book is that actually the press knew that my mom had passed before I did,” Jennifer shared in an interview.
The 9-1-1 star said: “The flight time with me getting back was so long. It was like a 10-and-a-half-hour flight, so by the time I arrived, everybody knew, and it was such a weird thing for me. But then later on, I was like, but everybody’s always known everything about my life kind of before. Even breakups, people have been like, ‘He was cheating on you already.’ Really, people? Like, why didn’t you tell me?'”
Jennifer Love Hewitt shared fans were more interested in seeing her mother in public.
Throughout her life, Patricia was a loving figure in the actress' life.
Jennifer recalled: "I would be on a very successful television show, we would walk into a restaurant and people couldn’t care less about me; that was my mother."
She added: “They wanted to know who was the woman that I was standing next to because she was light, she was joy. She made friends with everyone, there was no stranger in the world to her whatsoever.”
Jennifer Love Hewitt's new film pulls inspiration from her grief journey.
When Patricia died from complications of cancer in 2012, Jennifer struggled to talk about the loss.
The producer stated: “I honestly hadn’t ever said that much about my mother after she passed, because I didn’t have the words. I just didn’t know what to say, and this felt like the right time to talk about her and sort of say, ‘This is what she left behind.'”
When the news broke, the Hewitt family released a statement celebrating Patricia's magnetic energy.
A rep shared at the time: “Her family mourns her loss. She was an angel to all who knew her and they are grateful she is now in a better place. They ask for privacy at this difficult time.”
Jennifer Love Hewitt made her acting debut at the age of 11.
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Although Hewitt mourned her mother in private, her new Christmas film, The Holiday Junkie, pulls inspiration from her experiences celebrating the holidays without Patricia.
Jennifer shared: “We had a board where everybody would bring pictures of their loved ones who had passed, and every day, we dedicated the movie to all of them."
She noted: "I really didn’t want it to feel like it was only my experience. I wanted it to be everyone’s. So it was really nice because the crew and everybody at the end were like, ‘I felt like I really honored my dad,’ or ‘I felt like I really honored my grandma,’ or ‘I felt like they were here with us.’ It felt like it was a journey for everyone, and we all, I think, felt like we let that go when it was done, and it was beautiful that way.”
Jennifer spoke to The Hollywood Reporter.
