Jennifer Garner Wipes Away Tears as She Revisits Her Childhood Kitchen with Her Mom

Jennifer Garner is revisiting childhood memories with her mom.

In a video shared on Instagram on Dec. 7, KitchenAid surprised the 53-year-old actress and her mom, Patricia “Pat” Garner, with a replica of their kitchen from their home in Charleston, W.V., on Greystone Place.

While Jennifer and her mom, 87, were expecting to walk into a typical holiday photoshoot, the familiar wooden table, green refrigerator and sliding glass doors immediately brought Garner to tears.

“This is where we would hang out, all our crafts happened right here with somebody looking through from that side,” Jennifer said while crouching to look underneath the wooden cabinets. “This is the cabinet where you hid the chocolate chips.”

The 13 Going on 30 actress also pointed out an old photo of her mom sitting on the counter, adding that it reminded her of the perm Pat would get while “sitting at that table” on the other side of the room. 

“I think it’s a privilege to get to see where we used to be,” Pat noted while sitting at the kitchen table, after which Jennifer expressed just how real it all felt by adding, “I want that to be the den and then I wanna hear dad come home from work. That’s what I feel.”

Jennifer’s dad and Pat’s husband, William, died in 2024 at age 85.

Pat also said that, when they walked into the replica set together, the patterned wallpaper hit her with a particularly strong wave of nostalgia. 

Meanwhile, Jennifer said the entire experience gave her “a really deep feeling of homesickness and gratitude.”

“You made everything,” she explained, turning to her mom. “Whatever we had was stuff that we made. You made every cookie we ate, you made our homemade pizza. We would hover around the stove waiting for that.”

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Later on in the video, Jennifer and her mom got to relive old memories by making their signature “chock-full cookies” in the replica kitchen.

In addition to their latest cooking venture, Pat also made an appearance on a recent episode of Jennifer’s Pretend Cooking Show. 

In a video shared on Instagram on Oct, 6, the pair playfully followed Pat’s yellowed paper recipe for her famous enchiladas. After all, Jennifer noted that her mom had “been making them for many years.”

A few months before that, the Elektra actress celebrated her mom’s 86th birthday with a heartwarming social media tribute. 

“This is a Pat Garner stan account. ♥️😂,” she wrote alongside a carousel of funny videos featuring her mom giving her cooking tips on video calls and lamenting about exercising. “I love you, Mom, happy 86th birthday! 🥳”