LARA’S WELLNESS TIPS
weight,” she continues. “My mind was so focused on that and then the moment I just let myself be happy in my body and had kids, it really changed for me. I feel like my whole early twenties were just so centred on body issues.” Now, it’s almost as if she doesn’t have the energy to care about it anymore. “Maybe it’s just that I’m a mum of three boys and I’m completely run off my feet every day running after them,” she suggests. “Maybe it’s just because I have them to think about. Having a child is the most selfless thing you can do.”
When asked about the birth of her youngest son, Worthington explains their decision to keep his name secret for the time being. “I just think there’s not many things in life that are a mystery these days, and I think it’s nice to have that part of your family all together, and that’s yours,” she says.
The birth itself began stressfully, due to COVID. Initially, Worthington was told that she might have to give birth alone – without her husband or her mother, Sharon, who had flown to Los Angeles to be with her. “I started to get very worried,” she recalls. “But I had a brilliant doctor and he was super calming with Sam and I, and thankfully Sam was allowed to come.” But even just being in hospital at that time was strange, given the uncertainty then around coronavirus. Worthington chose not to stay overnight “because I was super nervous”, she admits, “and usually I love staying in the hospital. Everyone gives you a little bit more help when you need it for those few days, but I just wanted to get out of there.” Within 24 hours she was home. “It was a really weird experience,” she says. “I think I was just dropped into it, because it was such a new thing and no-one knew what we were dealing with.”
So, yes – it was a big year for Worthington. She also celebrated six years of her beauty business, which she renamed Share The Base and which is now a non-profit donating 100 per cent of profits to three charities, each chosen by the customer at checkout. “I didn’t want it to be about me anymore,” Worthington explains. “I wanted to be making a difference.” Last year saw nearly $100,000 donated to WWF Australia, Humpty Dumpty Foundation and Bowel Cancer Australia. All three
SIDE-STEPPING STRESS SOUL FOOD
are causes close to Worthington’s heart – in 2008, when she was 21, she lost her beloved father to bowel cancer. Seeing the impact of her work is “such a special feeling. And it definitely spurred us on to do more,” she adds.
Maybe this year will be even bigger. The Worthingtons are returning to Australia for Sam to star in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of Appropriate, landing in January and then quarantining for two weeks. One thing Worthington has learnt about herself over this past year of lockdowns is that she’s happiest at home. “When I do venture out, I’m like, ‘Why did I come here? I want to go home,’” she says. “Even out of quarantine, my choice is to stay home and watch movies. Every night we’re watching something.” (Recently, it was The Undoing, which she binged over pizza with her actor pal Phoebe Tonkin.) Worthington and her husband are well-matched: “Sam is a homebody like me.”
The couple met in New York in 2013 and were married a year later. “He always said to me, ‘We’ll just get to know each other as we grow old together,’” Worthington recalls, “and I thought that was really nice. That’s always been a thing in the back of my mind: that we will grow together and figure it out. It works for us. And I think it gets better and better, to be honest.” Parenting their brood of three is a task they share equally. “We work together really well,” she enthuses. “We’re lucky we have each other … I think that’s why we keep having more kids because it’s a very enjoyable family. We’re happy, and the kids are happy, and Sam is super present.”
Speaking at the end of a tumultuous year and on the eve of a brand new one, there is a sense that this is exactly where Worthington is meant to be: at home with no phone reception, an oasis sequestered away from the rest of the world with her gang of boys, all for one and one for all. “We’re a very tightknit family,” she says. “Sam and I are not those people that are like, ‘Oh let’s leave the kids with someone and go away, you and me, for the weekend.’ We’re totally the opposite. We’re all in.”
“When I do venture out I’m like, ‘Why did I come here? I want to go home’”