Brooke Shields Reveals How She and Husband Chris Henchy Keep Their 23-Year Marriage Healthy (Exclusive)

The couple has two daughters: Rowan (20) and Grier (18).

For Brooke Shields and her husband Chris Henchy, communication is a key element of marriage.

“I think you have to constantly be mindful of talking things out rather than letting them fester,” the 58-year-old actress and producer tells PEOPLE. “And you have to be willing to adapt as the other person evolves and changes.”

“Sometimes you don’t grow and change at the same pace,” continues Shields, who married 60-year-old producer Henchy in 2001. “And that can be really hard because what you originally fell in love with looks different. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, it’s just different.”

“It’s like we have to get to know each other as people at this age, whereas we only got to know each other in our early 30s,” explains the star of the new Netflix film Mother of the bride.

“I need to continue to grow personally, go to therapy and get to know myself at this stage of my life so that I can tell him instead of just expecting him to know.”

Related: Brooke Shields celebrates husband Chris Henchy’s 60th birthday: ‘No idea what we would do without you’

Shields adds that it’s important to speak your mind. “The things that were cute in the beginning aren’t cute anymore,” she says. “So I’ll say, ‘This doesn’t fit me anymore. Can we find another way to raise me? This doesn’t feel good anymore. In my thirties, it felt good. In my late fifties, it doesn’t feel good anymore.'”

“I think that’s where some couples get into trouble because they’re not willing to accept growth and change. I think you have to stick with it,” Shields says.

She and Henchy are going through a lot of changes right now as they prepare to leave their son’s home. Their daughter Rowan, 20, is currently in college, and their younger daughter Grier, 18, will also be leaving home in the fall.

Although Shields is looking forward to relaxing with her husband, she knows she will be busy.

“You come on vacation and all you can think about is where they are and what they’re doing,” she says. “It’s like there’s really no relief.”

Shields, who was previously married to tennis star Andre Agassi, met Henchy in 1999 in a sweet encounter that could have come straight out of a romantic comedy.

“I had just gotten an American bulldog, Darla, and I brought her to a meeting with friends at the gym on the Warner Bros. lot. The dog ran away and Chris brought her back,” she recalled in her 2005 memoir. Down Came the Rain: My journey through postnatal depression. “He was writing for a show that was filmed on the property and loved dogs. We chatted and he made me laugh.”

He still does to this day. Shields told PEOPLE in 2023 that her husband helps keep things casual.

“He always makes me laugh and doesn’t take anything too seriously, so I don’t go off into those asylums like I used to,” she said. “He just pulls me out and says, ‘We’ll figure it out.’ So he’s good at getting me back on track.”

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When Shields turned Mother of the bride She was in Thailand for two months last year, she says, and has stayed in constant contact with Henchy and her girls via FaceTime.

“I just made it a goal to FaceTime every day. Sometimes I had to get up at odd hours to FaceTime with them, but I figured we’re not going to go long without FaceTime,” she says. “Yeah, I don’t care if you just brush your teeth. Join in.”

Related: Mother of the bride Trailer: Brooke Shields and a naked Benjamin Bratt rekindle romance in Netflix’s new romantic comedy

In Mother of the brideShields plays Lana Winslow, a widowed doctor whose daughter (Miranda Cosgrove) becomes engaged to the son (Sean Teale) of her former college sweetheart. Lana only learns at the destination wedding that her ex will soon be her father-in-law.

For Shields, who starred in the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan From 1996 to 2000, filming this movie was a pleasure: “It feels so good to go back to my comedic roots.”

For more on Brooke Shields, pick up the new issue of PEOPLE.

Mother of the bride is on Netflix on May 9th.

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