Christina Milian is living her best life after moving with her family to Paris last year.
The actress, who stars as a young Maria LaGuerta in Dexter: Original Sins, made the big move to her husband Matt Pokora’s native country with her three children after years of splitting time between the French capital and Los Angeles — and she tells PEOPLE that the French style of life is really suiting her.
“It’s great,” Milian, 43, says as she explains how she maintains her Hollywood career while living in France. “My daytime, I get to do the family stuff. I work out. I do my self-care thing. I cook dinner. Usually things really kind of get started [for work] around 7 p.m., where it’s like phone calls and stuff, and I’m making dinner.”
Dinner is “the only time it might be a little bit stressful,” she says, as she’s both on mom duty and starting her work day as L.A. wakes up. Ideally, she makes it to 8:30 p.m. before she fully transitions her focus. “Then I’m all good. Then I handle business at nighttime.”
Milian says it’s a “nice balance” to have her day free to focus on her kids — she shares 14-year-old Violet with her ex The-Dream and Isaiah, 4, and Kenna, 3, with Pokora, 39 — because “being a parent is not easy. That’s a huge job.”
“I love it,” she continues of her Parisian lifestyle. “You can fill your whole day with everything you need.”
Given how well she’s juggling the move, it’s unlikely Milian is thinking about returning to the U.S., though she admits that she and Pokora are “never settled” and their “family is everywhere.”
“But I do think we’ll stay [in Paris] for a long time and that’s really going to be a landmark place for us. to stay most of our lives,” she says.
“My kids go to school there. I want the kids to continue speaking the language. It’s easy to switch to English all the time. So it’s nice that my daughter loves school there,” she continues. “We’re Frenchies.”
She’s also picking up the language herself. “I do speak French,” she shares. “I’m about 60 percent of the way [to being fluent].”
Though she’s not planning on leaving anytime soon, dealing with the nine-hour time difference while she’s in Paris can lead to some interesting meetings for Milian, who reveals that she had to do her callback for Dexter: Original Sins at 2 a.m. Paris time.
“My kids are sleeping, my husband’s sleeping. I’m doing this audition in the kitchen,” she recalls.
Despite the unusual circumstances, it seems the role was meant to be, and Milian says she’s “so thankful” to have been part of the Dexter prequel series.
“They made their decisions pretty quick,” she recalls of the casting process. “To get the call within the week was wild. I was so excited. It was a great phone call to get.”
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Dexter: Original Sin premieres Friday, Dec. 13 on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME Plan.
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