One big Riverdale family! Vanessa Morgan is always bringing her son, River, to The CW show’s set, and her costars love hanging out with the little man. In fact, Vanessa tells J-14 exclusively that Lili Reinhart and Drew Ray Tanner would be the 1-year-old’s best babysitters.
“I mean, he has a lot of aunties and uncles. I think they all would be amazing,” the actress gushes while promoting her partnership with Gold Bond’s My Scar My Story Campaign. “Drew is really good with River, but all of them are. Every time any of them see River, they come running to the trailer and give him a hug. He’s the little star of the show on set.”
Vanessa’s Riverdale character, Toni Topaz, shares a baby — Baby Anthony — with Drew’s character Fangs Fogarty on the show. The actress notes that it’s “funny” he’s so good with River because of their romantic relationship onscreen.
“Also Drew has experience,” she shares. “He has a couple of nephews, so he just like knows what to do with kids. So, he’s a great uncle to little Riv.”
Vanessa and her estranged husband, Michael Kopech, welcomed River in January 2021. Since he was born, the baby has been developing a hilarious personality.
“He’s just so funny. He’s like a little comedian. It’s really funny, he likes pointing out now,” she explains to J-14. “Now that he knows my name is Mama to him, he just loves telling everybody, ‘That’s my Mama.’ I find it hilarious. He only started doing that a week ago and it just cracks me up. He just loves telling people that’s his mom. He just says, ‘Wow,’ at everything. And that’s also so incredible to me, he’ll look at a wrapping paper and be like, ‘Wow.’ He just always puts a smile on my face.”
At first, Vanessa was apprehensive about sharing photos of River on social media. She’s since started to open up about their life together.
“I went through the phase of, ‘I’m never gonna post him.’ Then, I went through, he’s just my life. I wanna share these little snippets. Then sometimes, I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m not gonna post anymore,'” the CW star explains. “I go through my phases because he’s just my little precious boy. There are some things that I do like sharing, like our little journey that we’re doing together. So, I think it’s all about balance.”
One aspect of their mother-son bond Vanessa has shared with followers is her tattoos dedicated to River. She teamed up with Gold Bond to launch their My Scar My Story Campaign and got a meaningful tattoo dedicated to her C-section “battle scar,” which is what brought River “earth side.”
“Our skin is this beautiful canvas and it tells a story, and I just want people to be able to embrace their imperfections because that’s what makes us real and beautiful. That’s what this campaign is all about. With that said, I decided to get a tattoo to honor my [C-section] scar and Gold Bond helped me facilitate that,” she shares, noting that her favorite products to use are the , and . “I got the tattoo, Kintsugi, a form of Japanese pottery that you repair the broken pieces of pottery with gold, and it’s considered more beautiful for having been broken. I’ve always loved the meaning behind that, for years now. So, I thought that was the most beautiful way to honor my C-section scar. Just getting that beside the scar just is a beautiful memory.”
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