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From the New York Times and WBUR Boston, this is Modern Love.

Stories of Love, loss and redemption. I'm your host, Megna Chacrabardi.

The New York Times.

Maria Bello is known for films like Coyote Ugly and A History of Violence, as well as NBC's ER.

But a few years ago, the actress also became known for a part of her life offscreen, her love life.

And where better to open up about such things than the Modern Love column.

Here's Maria Bello reading her own essay, coming out as a modern family.

When my 12-year-old son, Jackson, asked me if there was something I wasn't telling him, I replied,

there are a lot of things I don't tell you. Like what?

Uh, adult stuff. He persisted. What kind of adult stuff?

This was the moment I had been anticipating and dreading for months.

Like romantic stuff. I said fumbling for words. What kind of romantic stuff?

Well, I said, like how sometimes you can be friends with someone, and then it turns romantic, and then your friends again, like with dad and me,

or romantic, like Brennan me were, and then he and I became friends.

...