Soleil Moon Frye Says 5-Year-Old Son 'Hit the Hardest' by COVID: His 'Symptoms Were the Worst'

Soleil Moon Frye/Instagram. Inset: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

Soleil Moon Frye is sharing new details about her children's bout with COVID-19.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the Punky Brewster star, 45, opens up about her family's experience with the illness last month when three of her four children tested positive for the virus.

"I can't trace where it came from. We don't know how they got it," Frye tells PEOPLE while discussing her partnership with GSK's Ask2BSure campaign. "It just goes to that concept that so often we don't think something can happen to us or we don't think it will affect us or happen to us. Then when it does, it really hits home."

"I thought that my kids just had a cold or the flu. I really didn't realize until my pediatrician encouraged me to test them and then immediately went into quarantine," she adds.

The actress, who shares daughters Poet Sienna Rose, 16, and Jagger Joseph Blue, 13, plus sons Lyric Sonny Roads, 7, and Story, 5, with ex Jason Goldberg, reveals that her youngest son was "hit the hardest" by COVID-19.

"My five-year-old's symptoms were the worst," she shares.

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The star says that each one of her kids had a "very different experience" with the illness and adds that they have now "recovered" and are "thriving."

When her kids were sick, Frye says she "turned into total mama bear."

"I just wanted to nurture and love them and hold them and take care of them, which is what I did. We quarantined. We stayed inside. We were just together all the time," she adds. "It also brought out a lot of emotions for me as a mom of four, because you just want to protect your kids. So it was a real learning experience."

Michael Simon/startraksphoto

Frye notes that her two older children are vaccinated against COVID-19 as they head back to school. The star says she is "really proud" of them as they were "very much a part of making these decisions."

"They really were asking about it," the actress says. "I think that it's incredible to see young people being involved in the conversation and being a part of making those choices."

When sharing the news of her kids' COVID-19 diagnoses last month, the actress also urged other parents to get their kids tested should they show symptoms.

"I still don't know where my three kids caught this from. All of us that have been around them have tested negative. That is part of the mystery in this, how hard it is often to trace and how easy it is to spread. Please be safe," she wrote at the time.

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