Brooke Shields ‘Not Ready’ to Be an Empty Nester Without Her Kids (Exclusive)

Brooke Shields is about to become an empty nester — but she’s not quite ready.

Speaking to PEOPLE in this week’s issue, the actress, 58, opened up about how she’s becoming an empty nester for the first time when both her daughters leave for college in the fall. Shields shares her daughters Grier, 18, and Rowan, 20, with longtime husband Chris Henchy.

“Not ready,” Shields responds when asked how she’s feeling about her daughters leaving the nest. “I thought I would be relieved, but I don’t know.”

“I’ll see if when I get there, but I think I’m going to be even…the thought of no longer living 24/7 in the house with these people that I’ve raised, it’s just very foreign. It’s like going to a totally foreign territory.”

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The proud mom adds that she told her younger daughter to give her a “grace period” as she adjusts to her daughter’s new self outside the nest.

“Because I said to my daughter, I’m like, I have to get introduced to you. Because I only know you as doing what I say you should do. And you’re not a baby anymore. And I need a little bit of time to re-acclimate to you as the young woman,” says Shields.

While appearing on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show, Shields opened up more about her close bond with her daughters, saying that although they’re both going to be in college in the fall, she thinks they’ll return home at some point.

“Yeah, I’ve been avoiding thinking of it because people will say to me, ‘Oh, you’re gonna be so relieved,’ and I just don’t see it happening,” she shared.

Shields added, “I don’t see it happening. I was like, ‘Well, they’re still gonna come back,’ and by the way, the cost of just living in this city is so prohibitive anyways that it may work in my favor.”

Despite how excited Shields is to have her daughters back in the nest, the star admitted that she might not be offering her space out for free. “Maybe I’ll start charging them rent though. That might be a good idea,” the mom of two said.

Until then, Shields is happy to spend time with her kids, especially when her husband is away on business.

“My younger daughter just turned 18. You know, the minute my husband is on any type of work trip or gone or something, you know, they still sleep in the bed with me,” she said. “We still watch rom-coms. They’re my babies and they will never not be.”

For more on Brooke Shields, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.