Tia Mowry on her 13-year marriage: ‘We don’t focus on specific gender roles’

The ‘Sister Sister’ star and her husband Cory Hardrict wed in 2008 and share two children together, son Cree, 9, and daughter Cairo, 2

Tia Mowry and Cory Hardrict are sharing how they make their marriage work.

On Thursday’s episode of People the TV Show! the couple opened up about gender roles in their home and the lessons they want to teach their children.

“We’ve got a loving household,” said Hardrict, 41. “We try to teach our kids if you have equality in the house, that can bleed over into the world and that’s what makes the world a better place.”

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The couple who wed in 2008, share two children together, Cree, 9, and daughter Cairo, 2.

Mowry, 42, says she is often asked how they make their marriage work and the answer is simple.

“A lot of people, they ask Cory and I, like, ‘What makes your marriage, you know, a great marriage?’ ” she said. “And if I’m being really honest with you — and we’ve been doing this for years — we don’t focus on specific gender roles.”

That’s right, the couple who are both actors, say they take turns handling responsibilities in the home.

“It’s a team effort at our house,” Mowry says.

The Hardrict family may have modern style family values but they still take advice from the matriarchs of the family. In an exclusive interview with theGrio Mowry opened up about how she applies lessons she learned from her mother and grandmother to raise her own kids.

“My mom has always taught me that actions are more important than words, especially when it comes to building your child’s character,” the Sister, Sister alum shared while discussing her partnership with Swash detergent. “Their development, their growth, teaching them about being good people, teaching them about being kind—it all starts with action. So if you’re not being kind or if they don’t see that within your behavior, then how are they going to learn?”

She continued, “I’m all about working hard. I want my kids to be that way as they get older. I want them to know that you have to work hard for what you want to achieve. My mom and my grandmother, they’ve definitely showed me that. My grandmother—she ended up passing away last year in January—but she’s left such an incredible imprint on what family is and what it means. She will always be forever in my heart.”

The role of “mom” is one Mowry does not take lightly. She told theGrio that Black motherhood is “beautiful,” and she learned how to be “the queen of the family” from the women who came before her.

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“I always say that Black women are strong,” Mowry explained. “We have endurance. We have gone through so much as Black women. Meaning, our kids were taken away from us, or husbands were taken away from us. We’ve learned how to make lemonade out of lemons. I just feel that whatever you put in front of us, we will make it happen. [My mother, grandmother and great-great grandmother] were always the queen of the family, the backbone of the family. Black is beautiful and black women are beautiful.”

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