Nikki Reed made a name for herself as an actress, but now, she couldn’t be happier — and more exhausted — running a farm and raising two kids with her husband, Ian Somerhalder.
“I start my days at 5 [a.m.] and I usually finish them around midnight,” Reed, 36, exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, May 28, while promoting her partnership with Babganics’ “Oops! I Forgot It Again” campaign.
The Twilight actress, who married Somerhalder, 45, in 2015, revealed that the couple grow “over 40 different types of fruits and vegetables” on their land. “It is really full on and full time,” Reed said.
She noted that she is both breastfeeding and working full time, which has made her days feel a little longer. (Reed and Somerhalder share a 6-year-old daughter and an 11-month-old son.)
“I’m definitely in the sleep-deprived-and-juggling-and-wearing-many-hats stage of motherhood,” Reed shared, revealing, “I think last night I slept maybe two and a half hours. I don’t have a way to track that, but the amount of times I looked at the clock, I think that would probably be it. So that’s my phase right now.”
Reed told Us that while she is “doing the best” she can to “always be open to listening and learning” as a mother, finding her rhythm as a working parent and partner isn’t easy.
“I’m not doing that balancing thing well right now, and that’s OK. That’s just part of it,” Reed confessed. “I have to just embrace that.”
Life is full of chaos, which Reed is fully aware of and ready to face head on. “I want to just lean into it and go, ‘Yes, things are not balanced. That’s OK,’” she continued. “I’m not sleeping a lot right now. That’s alright. This is the season or the chapter that we’re in, and just trying to find the joy in all the moments that can feel really chaotic.”
After welcoming her second child in June 2023, Reed realized that she needs to “soak it all up and take it all in” because the early years go by fast.
“I don’t have a lot of time for myself right now. That’s all right. At some point I will, but I’m working full time,” she explained. “I’m working, definitely, five days a week, but sometimes six and seven.”
All that intense labor, however, is for the greater good. “I think that it’s amazing for little people to see a mom who’s ambitious, who’s working, who’s still around 24/7,” Reed said. “I am working and raising babies at the same time and trying to do all of that in the best way that I can. And I’m in it right now and it’s awesome.”
While Reed enjoys putting in a hard day’s work on the farm, she revealed she and Somerhalder don’t plan to sell their produce. “Never say never,” she teased, sharing that their land is a “sanctuary that it doesn’t feel like a business to me right now.”
Despite the early call time, Reed said she is “very happy feeding the deer and the squirrels and that community.”
The pair also run the Absorption Company, which they launched in January. “I’ve been really proud of us seeing how we work together in that way,” Reed said of the couple’s work dynamic. “And we really are the yin and the yang, even though I know we have a lot of shared passion, which is quite obvious that there’s a huge overlap in what we care about.”
She gushed about her husband, calling him a “visionary” who is “creative” and a “dreamer.” Reed, meanwhile, said she is the “nuts bolts” person who asks, “How do we execute this?” on a daily basis.
If being a mom, wife and entrepreneur weren’t enough, Reed has recently teamed up with Babyganics to promote their “Oops! I Forgot It Again” campaign, which is focused on getting families outside.
“I obviously talk a lot about being outdoors and being in nature, and as a mom I can tell you … sometimes it can feel like climbing Mount Everest trying to get bags packed and I call it herding cats, almost just trying to get everybody out the door,” Reed said of her partnership with the brand. “And so this campaign really resonated with me because it’s all about getting your kiddos outdoors, but also embracing all of the perfectly imperfect moments that come with parenthood.”
Babyganics is hosting an event from Friday, May 31 to Sunday, June 2, in New York and Los Angeles to inspire parents to get their kids outside and enjoy nature. There will be pop-up stands in each location where attendees can grab whatever they forgot, including sunscreen, for the day of outdoor fun free of charge.
“As a parent, I can just say it really takes a village, it takes a community,” Reed told Us. “And knowing that that can be highlighted in this way this weekend — there’s these incredible stands that have not only the products that we all forget when we run out the door sun hats and sunscreen, but also parents can come and donate things that they have in excess, which is so helpful.”
Learn more about Babganics’ “Oops! I Forgot It Again” campaign and products go to their website.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
