Danica McKellar Opens Up About Spending the Holidays with Her Blended Family — Including Her Ex-Husband and His Wife (Exclusive)
Danica McKellar Opens Up About Spending the Holidays with Her Blended Family — Including Her Ex-Husband and His Wife (Exclusive)
Hannah SacksMon, November 9, 2026 at 3:43 PM UTC
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Danica McKellar with her family.Credit: Danica McKellar -
Danica McKellar shares with PEOPLE how she celebrates holidays with her husband, ex-husband and their spouses while co-parenting son Draco
The actress says keeping things simple helped her family build a supportive relationship after divorce
McKellar stars in The Greatest Christmas Gift and The Christmas Yes List, both out this month on The Great American Family channel
Danica McKellar is gearing up to celebrate the holiday season — with her entire family.
The actress, 51, who is set to star in both The Greatest Christmas Gift and The Christmas Yes List this holiday season on the Great American Family Channel, divorced her ex-husband Mike Verta in 2013. But the two share son Draco, 16, and McKellar tells PEOPLE that they’ve been able to come together again to celebrate these special family moments.
“I am blessed to say that we all celebrate together,” says McKellar. “[Draco’s] dad and I divorced when he was a year and a half old, and we are both remarried, and we all do the holidays together — Thanksgiving and Christmas every other year. We alternate.”
Danica McKellar in ‘The Greatest Christmas Gift.’Credit: Great American Family
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“It’s one of the most amazing things about my life that this somehow all worked out,” she continues. “It was not always easy. We’re supportive of each other, and we do co-parent Draco together. His dad is so flexible. My schedule is all over the place. I’m doing a movie, if I’ve got press to do out of town, he lets me move around the schedule, and he’s just always been like that.”
McKellar explains that her divorce was “rough,” but she knew she had to get through the pain and the breakup for her son’s sake. When the first Thanksgiving post-separation rolled around, the actress says it was important to her that they all celebrated as a family.
“I remember that first Thanksgiving, I didn’t know how to cope, but I ended up coping by washing all the dishes as soon as they got dirty,” she says. “Every single time. I was back-and-forth and back-and-forth like, ‘Hey, I’ll get that!’ And I just pick up dishes and wash them.”
Danica McKellar in ‘The Christmas Yes List.’Credit: Great American Family
But by the next year and the year after, McKellar says things got easier. Now for the holidays, the Wonder Years alum and her husband Scott Sveslosky join her ex-husband Verta and his wife Laura Beth.
“I’m so grateful that my husband is on board. He’s absolutely amazing,” says McKellar of Sveslosky, whom she married in 2014. “I don’t take that for granted, but it’s settled into this really amazing place where we’re all family.”
“I’m not married to him anymore, and he’s got a wife, and I’ve got a husband, but we’re all still family. We all still support each other,” she adds.
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McKellar’s ex-husband Verta has even worked on some of her films, including one of her new films, The Greatest Christmas Gift. In the movie, McKellar stars as a music teacher and learned some piano for the role. But in actuality, Verta is playing most of the music.
Danica McKellarCredit: Great American Family
“The piano that you’re hearing the whole time actually, in fact, is Mike, my ex, playing. He created these tracks and then taught me how to play these little pieces of them, and then I practiced to the tracks that he made,” she explains. “He and Draco made me these tutorial videos that I watched. I brought a keyboard with me to my hotel room, and I would practice the night before, do it a hundred times, whatever the song was.”
“That kind of support system, it’s family still,” says McKellar. “And you get that from putting in the work.”
McKellar’s son Draco has also been helpful with her new movies, sometimes even offering his own opinion on a scene.
“Sometimes I help to edit [the movies] as well as at Great American, and I’ll be like, ‘Hey, what do you think of this take versus that take?’ And he always has a strong opinion about it, and he’s great,” shares the proud mom. “He’s got a good instinct for all that. So he may end up doing something in filmmaking. It’s hard to know yet.”
As she looks ahead to this year’s holiday season, McKellar has a few pieces of advice for other families who might be in similar situations.
“I would say keep it simple, do the dishes, don’t gossip, don’t read into things, just do positive things like making food, say nice things,” she shares. “And you just keep things simple like that; don’t expect anything in return for the nice things you do or say.”
“You just keep it simple, keep your side of the street clean, you will eventually bring out the best in everyone around you,” continues McKellar. “And then the reward is years later it doesn’t take much effort. We just are family again.”
The Christmas Yes List premieres on Nov. 14, and The Greatest Christmas Gift premieres on Nov. 29 on the Great American Family Channel.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
