Peter Facinelli is a proud girl dad to his and ex-wife Jennie Garth’s three daughters — and cannot help but marvel over their latest accomplishments.
“Luca’s in New York, I miss her dearly,” Facinelli, 49, recently told Us Weekly of their firstborn, 25, while promoting his movie On Fire. “She works for [a nonprofit] and she writes. I’m really proud of her; she’s very creative.”
Facinelli and Garth’s second daughter, Lola, is currently enrolled in college with plans to study fashion. “She has some fashion ideas and ideas for clothing lines, and she’s going to school [to] learn that,” the Twilight star told Us of the 20-year-old. “And so I get to see her [on school breaks], which is wonderful.”
The ex-couple’s youngest daughter, Fiona, is gearing up to turn 17 next month and goes back-and-forth between her parents’ houses.
“She lives half the time with me, half time with her mom, so I get to see her all the time,” Facinelli said. “And she’s in high school, so she’s just being [a regular teen] in high school. She doesn’t have to figure anything out yet. She’s got a couple more years [left]. She’s in cheerleading and just enjoying being a teenager.”
Facinelli and Garth, 51, were married between 2001 and 2013 before ultimately going their separate ways. They’ve since remained amicable coparents.
Garth remarried Dave Abrams in July 2015. Facinelli, for his part, has moved on with fiancée Lily Anne Harrison, and they welcomed their first baby together, son Jack, in September 2022.
“It’s great. There’s days where he’s little — he’s turning 1 — [and is] very curious about everything and he wants to touch everything. He’s learning how to walk, so part of him is crawling,” Facinelli told Us, noting they are planning to celebrate Jack’s birthday with a jungle animal-themed party. “Then the other part of him, he gets up and takes two steps and falls. So, I’m always worried about him. I just want to wrap him in bubble wrap. I don’t want to get hurt, but part of learning is falling and having me pick ’em up. And I think that’s what being a dad is about.”
Facinelli is also struggling to “sit back” and watch Lola, Luca and Fiona make their own decisions. “I’ve taught them as much as I can. And then now I have to sit back and if they fall, I help pick ’em up,” he said.
In addition to being a proud dad to his four little ones, Facinelli has continued acting. His latest movie, On Fire, premieres on Friday, September 29.
“On Fire is a survival film about a family who is trapped in a wildfire. Very poignant with what’s going on in the world today with all these fires happening, especially with the one in Maui,” he teased to Us. “But it’s meant to give hope, and it’s also meant to celebrate the firefighters that put their lives on the line for these horrible wildfires that keep happening. And also to celebrate the first responders as well. My character is a dad who gets trapped in a wildfire with his family, and they work together to get out of it.”
With reporting by Leanne Aciz Stanton
