The model and actress shared that she thought she would feel "relieved" when she reached the point where her two daughters — Rowan, 20, and Grier, 18 — were all grown up and living independently, reports ‘People’ magazine.

Instead, she's discovered that moms never really stop worrying about their kids. She said, "You get on vacation and all you do is think about where they are and what they're doing. It's like there's really no relief.”

She told ‘People’, "It's like people say, 'Oh, it's going to be great. Just when they start to be able to walk. You don't have to carry them everywhere. Then they're walking all over and you're worried about them falling off the stairs and in the pool and down the street, and then they're able to walk’.”

She added, "And every step of the way, you think it's going to be a relief. And then a whole new set of worries just smacks you in the face.”

Even though her daughters are entering adulthood, the ‘Mother of the Bride’ star says she still doesn't feel like she can ease up on the worrying and mental load that comes with being a parent.

"What is the expression? Wearing your heart on your sleeve? This is like a hard suit. A whole body suit of a heart," she said as she described the experience of having children.

Come September, when Grier heads off to college, she and Henchy (60) will find themselves with an empty house — a prospect Shields says she initially looked forward to but now has her feeling off-kilter.

“(I’m) not ready. I thought I would be relieved, but I don't know. I'll see if when I get there, but I think I'm just going to be even... the thought of no longer living 24/7 in the house with these people that I've raised, it's just very foreign … it's like going to a totally foreign territory,” she added.