Alexandra Breckenridge has starred in shows like This Is Us, The Walking Dead and Virgin River, which is now in its seventh season on Netflix. But her most meaningful role to date is that of mom.
“When I first held my baby, the world melted away and I knew he was the most important thing I’d ever do,” she once said about being a parent to her two kids.
Keep reading to learn more about Breckenridge’s children, including how she faced a frightening health scare with her son—and how she used that experience to inform her character on Virgin River.
How many kids does Alexandra Breckenridge have?
Breckenridge is a mother of two. She welcomed her first child, a son, in September 2016, followed by a daughter in December 2017.
“Some people say, ‘How could [you] possibly love two of them?’” she said before the arrival of her daughter. “But I’m not even worried about that. If I can love the first one this much, I’ll love the second one this much too!”
Who is the father of Alexandra Breckenridge’s kids?
Breckenridge shares her children with husband Casey Hooper, a professional guitarist who has toured with major artists including Katy Perry.
In fact, the couple’s story began in a roundabout way thanks to Perry, who invited Breckenridge to a Grammys party after stopping by her Los Angeles apartment with a mutual friend.
“[T]hey came over for some chicken,” Breckenridge told The Talk. “[Katy] said, ‘This is the best chicken I’ve ever had. Why don’t you come to the Grammy party in February?’”
Breckenridge took her up on the offer—and met Casey there. Four years later, in 2015, they tied the knot.
Who are Alexandra Breckenridge’s kids?
Breckenridge and Hooper share two children:
Jack, 9
Their first child, Jack, was born in September 2016 and weighed just over nine pounds at birth.
“My son was huge. He was humongous,” Breckinridge said, recounting the story of his water birth. “And I feel like the hippies lied to me, because I was watching these documentaries about these water births and I was like, ‘Wow, I can do that. I can do that! I wanna do a water birth.’” Cut to her delivery, and she was “screaming blood murder.”
Still, the pain was worth it. “When Jack was born, I experienced a kind of love I never had before,” she said. “I loved my husband more than anything and then I had a child, and that is a totally different level of love.”
Billie, 8
The couple welcomed their second child, Billie, in December 2017.
The pregnancy came as a surprise. “I may not have had another child had that not happened, and I’m so grateful that that’s how she came into this world,” Breckenridge said on an episode of Broad Ideas with Rachel Bilson & Olivia Allen. “Because people say they’re obsessed with their children, but I adore my daughter Billie to the ends of the earth and back.”
What illness did Alexandra Breckenridge’s son have?
Breckenridge has revealed that her son Jack experienced a serious health scare when he was very young. While she has not disclosed many details about the exact illness, she explained how the ordeal helped her emotionally connect to a difficult storyline on Virgin River, in which her character, Mel, suffered a miscarriage.
“One of my children was very, very sick when he was young and could have died, so I have a personal connection and understanding of the emotional loss of a child,” she told Deadline. “When you’re a parent and you come so close to that edge of not having them anymore, I already experienced that in a different way, so I came into that scene reliving that experience. That’s how I approached it, because that’s what I know.”
Fortunately, Jack recovered, and Breckenridge has since described him as “the apple of my eye.”
Where is Alexandra Breckenridge raising her kids?
Rather than raising their children in Los Angeles, Breckenridge and Hooper chose to settle in rural Georgia.
“The rural areas of Georgia have an amazing sense of community we were lacking in L.A.,” she told Atlanta Magazine. “We wanted our children to grow up in a place where they could play and ride their bikes that didn’t feel like a big city.”
If only Virgin River were a real place and not a fictional town—they could have lived there!