Were you as surprised as I was to hear about Tea Leoni and David Duchovny divorcing earlier this year? I knew they had had problems in the past, but I thought they had worked everything out and reconciled. Apparently not. Now Tea is moving on with a new TV show ‘Madam Secretary’ on CBS. She chatted about her split and her new show in an interview.
Tea opened up to Parade about her split from David.
Listen, David gave me the two greatest gifts on the planet; I don’t know how I could ever hate him,” she says. “We’ve always loved each other, and we adore these kids. … I’m not playing stupid—I understand feelings can get hurt and things can get icky. We’ve had our moments like that. But these kids are too important, and he feels the same way, I know it. He’s a good guy.”
She said that they still hang out as a family.
It’s fun to spend time as this unit that we still are, and it’s easy to communicate about them. There was that brief moment when the kids said, ‘Oh, I can work a scam on you here and him over there,’ and we were like, ‘News flash—no!’ ”
Kids will be kids- LOL. It sounds like she and David really are handling their split well for their kids’ sakes. Good for them!
So why did Tea decide to return to TV with ‘Madam Secretary’ after already making the transition from TV (in the 1990s) to the movies?
I was ready… [I read the script and] by page three my imagination was working, visualizing it. I put it down thinking, I’ll regret it if I don’t do this. She’s a different kind of woman than we’ve ever seen on television or in politics.”
She even got to have breakfast with Madeline Albright, the US’s first female Secretary of State.
Facing sexism as the first woman in that job, she told me things I’ll take to the grave. She did say that although there was a concern about sending a woman to negotiate in areas where women are not revered or educated, ‘All the trouble I had was here, never over there.’ ”
Tea’s character is, of course, the Secretary of State, but the show also deals with how she balances her job with her home life. The part came to her courtesy of her former ‘Deep Impact’ co-star, Morgan Freeman, who’s producing the show with his partner, Lori McCreary.
I knew Morgan was going to protect this character. He was never going to let it become Madam Sexetary.
“There’s often an assumption that men in 2014 have an unwillingness to partner with a strong woman. I can’t believe more people aren’t offended by that. I’m tired of it, and I’m way too old to play out that scenario.”
So Tea’s character’s husband, played by Tim Daly, is a professor: someone with a career of his own. I’m definitely planning on checking this show out! Take a look at a preview below.
Photos by FAMELFYNET