Why Julie Bowen Says Her 3 Teenage Boys Are 'More Expensive Than Horses' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Julie Bowen, Oliver McLanahan Phillips, John Phillips and Gustav Phillips on May 1, 2024 in L.A.Photo:Allen Berezovsky/Getty

Allen Berezovsky/Getty

Julie Bowenis opening up about the funny realities of raising teen boys.

The actress, 54, now starring in the pop-horror seriesHysteria!,has to laugh about how much her sons Oliver, 17, and twins Gus and John, 15, eat.

“The eat again right after dinner,” she tells PEOPLE with a laugh. “We’ll leave a restaurant and they’ll come home and they’re immediately boiling water. I’m like, what’s going on? ‘Oh we’re just going to make some pasta. Like, what?”

Bowen, who grew up in Maryland, says her childhood was decidedly different from her own kids, who were born and raised in Los Angeles.

“We were in the yard all day, pretending to ride horses on broomsticks, putting on plays for our parents,” she says of growing up with her two sisters. “I actually did learn to ride horses and always wanted one but my mom wouldn’t let me. Maybe when the kids are out of school I’ll get one. But the only thing more expensive than horses are teenage boys.”

Julie Bowen and her sons.Julie Bowen/Instagram

Julie Bowen/Instagram

She adds, “You go grocery shopping, get home, food is gone.”

Another relatable aspect of raising teens?

“Socks. Towels and socks everywhere all the time,” she says. “I don’t understand it. Underwear on the kitchen counter. Like what? It’s like that religious thing, I’m forgetting the name, where everyone gets sucked up to heaven and there’s just a pile of clothes left behind. That’s my house.”

TheModern Familyalum also recently opened up onToday with Hoda and Jennaabout how her kids are pulling away from her as they get older, which she says is a bummer.

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She continues, “‘Like, Hi… it’s me… mom… I birthed you?’” Bowen says. “They don’t care.But they do get excited. They’re excited forHysteria. They’re excited forHappy Gilmore. They get excited for new stuff.”

While Bowen makes jokes about her real life mom problems, she’s loving getting to play a different kind of mom in her new seriesHysteria!.

Julie Bowen in ‘Hysteria!'.PEACOCK

PEACOCK

“At the end of the first season it’s still unclear to me. Is my character nuts? It’s really fun.”

Hysteria!is streaming on Peacock.

source: people.com