Kelly Rowland sat down with us to talk about her year-long partnership with baby laundry detergent Dreft, motherhood, and her guest-starring on this season’s Empire.
She’s pairing with the renowned laundry line to celebrate her first year of motherhood and the many stages of babyhood. Dreft recently expanded its products to cater to each baby life stage—from pregnancy through toddlerhood and beyond.
How did this partnership with Dreft happen?
It was super easy; they heard I love the product. I’m not the type of person to attach myself to stuff unless I really use it, unless it’s really a part of my home. Before I even signed on to be a part of the team, I was already washing [one-year old son] Titan’s clothes. His sheets, everything in his room I wanted it to smell like baby. I wanted it to be babyfied. So that’s exactly what I did, so when he came home, it was just perfect. Even before he got there I was opening the drawers, waiting and counting down the days for him to come home and smelling everything.
So they heard and they were like, ‘we definitely want her to be part of the campaign.’ And it’s been really easy. Every product, like Dreft Active Baby, I really use, even when they don’t send it to me, I’m buying it. And it works! And it’s hypoallergenic. And my son has eczema, I have eczema. We all wash our clothes in Dreft, to be honest.
[slideshow]How did you hear about Dreft?
A girlfriend of mine, she’d just had a baby, and I remember smelling her baby and I was like, what is that? She said ‘it’s Dreft, isn’t it amazing?” I wanted Titan’s whole room to smell like that. So I did it. *Laughs
What’s your favorite thing to do with Titan?
Right now: read. I’ve been reading to him since he was in my belly, and now he literally goes to his bookshelf, picks up a book and asks me to read it. Of course, non-verbally. I think I’m really proud of that because I wanted him to be a reader; to just enjoy that for himself.
The Classics?
Right now he loves “Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?” and “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” This one book called “I Can Do It,” but I go I can do ehhht. *Laughs And “One Love,” and at the end of it I sing the song to him. He loves music.
One Love by Bob Marley?
Yes. They had Bob put some of the lyrics inside of the book with a little illustration to go along with it.
I would have loved that!
Oh it’s so cute, and it’s one of Titan’s favorites.
And so you’re appearing on Empire, which I’m also a fan of.
Ok the last two episodes have been really awesome. Yeah they really, really have. Watch it before the new ones come on; have a little binge moment.
How did you link up with the show?
Lee [Daniels, show creator] and I were at a SoulCycle class at the same time, and he was on the other side of the room, and he was like ‘I KNOW WHO YOU ARE.’
Like mouthing it to me. And I said ‘what?’ *Laughs
And so after the class we spoke. You know usually people have ‘Hollywood Talk,’ he meant every word. The next day the folks from Empire asked ‘well what is her availability, we need her to shoot these days.’ I thought ‘now he’s not Hollywood talking.’ I love people from Philly, but this was another level. He’s just true to his roots and [pauses], honest. And I appreciate that.
Did you know who he was when started mouthing at you?
Absolutely!
I wondered if you thought it was just some person yelling at you…
Noooo. No no no! *Laughs
I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!
No I was a fan of him. And the funny thing is I would just say hi and nod and just smile. But this day he came up and said ‘how are you?’ Super-talkative. I was like yeah!
So how’d you get in character?
I started reading up about bi-polar disorder. And actually looking at YouTube as well. Cause YouTube has people talking about their own journey through bi-polar disorder. I just kind of wrapped my head around it. One thing that I love about my character is her love for her son. She just wanted to be a great mom. And she’s willing to go through anything to make sure that he’s happy. And with her illness sometimes it makes it a bit of a challenge, because some days she doesn’t know what she’s doing; whether it’s herself or her son. But she loves him. She loves him. At the end of the day…
You can relate to that.
Absolutely.
When are you appearing?
I’ve appeared in all of the episodes except for the very first one. And then I’m going to shoot another one.
Fantastic. What are your Halloween plans?
Titan and I are going to dress up. We’re going to go as Micky and Minnie Mouse. And we’re gonna go to about four houses for trick-or-treating [smirks], call it a day. His first trick-or-treating experience. Hope he remembers it but I doubt he will. *Laughs
What’s your favorite costume you ever wore?
Dressing as a cowgirl. Only because it’s attached to such a great memory for me.
What’s the memory?
My mom and I, we’d just moved to Houston from Atlanta. And I remember being in a new place and not having any friends. I remember going out and we were going to the pasta house and all these kids said ‘oh I like your costume.’
That for me was like [sighs deeply]. You know what I mean? Attaching myself to new people and a new space. And feeling like it was gonna be ok.
That’s so scary as a kid.
[in agreement] What? Yes.
I’m going as Eddie Murphy from ‘Coming to America’.
Word?!
I already previewed it last weekend. It went well.
*Laughs.
I’m feeling good.
Which outfit did you get?
The one with the leopard draped over it.
Dooope. I have to bite that maybe next year.
You should definitely steal it.
*Laughs
Photo Caption: Singer and celebrity mom, Kelly Rowland, celebrates a mother-son moment with her little man, Titan. Kelly and Titan have partnered with Dreft, the trusted baby laundry detergent, to chronicle their journey of #amazinghood this past year. Fans can view new exclusive content from Kelly and Titan on Dreft’s social media channels in the coming weeks. (Matt Sayles/AP/Invision)