Jennifer Carpenter: ‘Everything’s aligned. This is my best life!’

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We haven’t heard from Jennifer Carpenter, 37, much since she stopped working on Dexter and since she got a divorce from her costar, Michael C. Hall. There was some gossip around her hookup with her now husband, musician Seth Avett (of the Avett brothers) because he was married when she met him in 2013 and she used to travel to see his band. Follow-up stories from official sources claimed he was separated by the time they got together, and Avett’s estranged wife even sort-of confirmed that, but Carpenter had been around his band for quite some time at that point. Plus they were described as friends for years before their romance, which sounds suspicious enough. I guess it does happen though.

Anyway Carpenter has worked steadily since Dexter, if not on high profile projects. She was on the TV show Limitless and she’s done some lesser-known films. She has a film coming out called Brawl in Cell Block 99, with Vince Vaughn and Don Johnson, and she spoke to US at the premiere about her life now and how great it is. She also talked about the guilt she had at having to be apart from her son for ten days, which she says didn’t faze him at all.

“The longest time I spent away from [my son] was 10 days, which was painful for me but he was none the wiser. I feel like a lot of moms feel this pressure that they can’t mess up. This is the most important job they’ve ever had. But I realize that he’s the teacher, I’m the student. I can mess up.

[Carpenter] touched upon the guilt she experienced while adjusting to the responsibilities attached to motherhood. “It’s so easy to feel guilt as a new mom,” Carpenter said. “I was away for 10 days and I was just packing it on, and I’m like, ‘He’s teaching me. He’s teaching me what love is.’ How to really invest!”

The Kentucky native also discussed the possibility of more children in the future. “I’ve never had the inclination to go again,” she affirmed. “I’m with the right man. I have an incredible son. Every fraction of myself is totally invested, you know, and I’m satisfied. Everything’s aligned. This is my best life!”

[From US Magazine]

These are likely some quick throwaway comments she made on a red carpet but I feel like I would be jinxing myself if I said that I was living my best life and that everything was aligned. This was probably in response to a question of whether she was going to have more kids, and my first instinct would be to say “none of your business,” but I understand saying something that amounts to “everything is great thanks, I’m so happy!” It’s those moments when you wonder when the other shoe is going to drop, but that’s just the cynic who has taken over my personality in the last few months. It’s like you’re constantly on guard for the next bad thing that’s going to happen, which you never can predict.

As for guilt at leaving her son I get that. I don’t understand considering a toddler your teacher though. You learn how to adapt to them and their needs but you’re still a parent. She has a bizarre way of seeing the world.

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