Tracker‘s Justin Hartley has made rare comments about his daughter, Isabella.
Hartley became a dad after then-wife Lindsay Korman welcomed their daughter in 2004. The pair called it quits in 2012 but remained focused on coparenting successfully.
“Communication [is key],” the actor exclusively told Us Weekly in 2019. “It’s nothing new. Communication and an understanding of where everyone’s coming from and realizing that it’s hard. As much as you try to put yourself in other people’s shoes, you’re never fully going to be able to do it, but you should just make the effort.”
Hartley added that he felt “lucky” as a working dad.
“My daughter’s very self-sufficient and very smart. She’s very resourceful, so I’m thankful that that’s the case [and] I get a lot of help from my ex-wife,” he continued. “I get a lot of help from my daughter. I mean, she’s the one that’s making it all go around. She deserves all the credit.”
Hartley’s wife, Sofia Pernas, whom he married in 2021, has also formed her own bond with Isabella.
“She’s so wise. I mean, that girl, she’s got it figured out!” Pernas told Page Six in 2022. “She knows exactly what she wants. She has a beautiful, wonderful boyfriend. I don’t want to say too much about it because she’s like, ‘Ahh!’ but they’re awesome.”
Pernas called Isabella and Hartley “very” smart. “She knows what she wants, and [Justin has] lucked out,” she continued. “It’s rare when you get someone [who is almost] 18 being that precocious about what they want in a partner and not messing up and figuring out from your mistakes later. She’s great.”
Keep scrolling for Hartley’s sweetest insight into fatherhood:
The Cool Dad
While playing Kevin on This Is Us, Hartley told E! News in 2017 that Isabella was a fan of the show.
“[She] watches it, her friends watch it, their parents watch it, so I’m like the cool dad now,” he said at the time. “[When I] take her to school, I get to walk her in now. We can hang out in front of her friends. It’s cool.”
His Best Friend
“We do everything from read to surf Instagram,” he shared with Us in 2019. “We’ll go for walks. We played basketball yesterday morning. … We swim, we go for drives, we do everything.”
Hartley continued: “It’s nice. I’m lucky to have a [daughter] who I feel like tells me everything or can tell me everything. She probably doesn’t tell me everything, but I think she feels like she can. That was the goal. … She’s my best friend.”
Teaching Her to Drive
During an interview with Seth Meyers in 2021, Hartley joked there must be “a better way” to teach driving to teenagers.
“You put them behind the wheel, take them around the street and you keep expanding and we’re kind of at the point where we’re on the freeway and stuff,” he explained. “The other day, I [took] her out.”
Hartley recalled grabbing gummy bears for the ride, adding, “I’m in the car, she’s driving, she’s doing great and I’m in the passenger seat. I’m kind of feeling loose and I open up the gummy bears and as I’m eating them — I’m shoving them in my mouth like a child — and I look up and we are cruising through a four-way — a red light! Just reckless! She just could not have cared less. … She’s trying to kill me.”
Empty Nester
“It’s tough when they leave,” Hartley said during an appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show in 2022. “You think you’re ready for it because as they get older they gain independence and they’re gone a lot anyway. They have their own friends and their own interests. You can always, I guess, go see them.”
Hartley admitted he was still coming to terms with such a monumental change.
“But when they’re [really] gone, it really is a text or a phone call. And you know, she’s 18, so let’s be honest, it’s a text. I’m not getting phone calls, which is normal, but I hate it,” he shared.
Their Strong Connection
“Having an adult, it’s like having another friend you can talk to. She’s really wonderful,” the CBS star told People in February 2024. “I don’t think, for me anyway, being a dad really goes away. It’s always dad first. I think when she’s 30, it’ll be dad first.”
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