Chris Cuomo's daughter Bella admits that all the attention on her dad and uncle is interesting, to say the least!
Bella, 17, and mom Cristina chatted with ET this week about how their family is handling quarantine -- Chris and Cristina were both diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus before their 14-year-old son, Mario, also tested positive -- as well as the public interest in the high-profile brothers.
While Bella and her 11-year-old sister, Carolina, have stayed healthy thus far, it was the high school junior who stepped up to help care for her siblings and parents when they fell ill. "I was snippier, because, you know, I'm not used to raising children," she joked of her parenting skills.
"Bella is really the only one who can handle her father very brilliantly," Cristina praised. "He loves her to death and it's the father-daughter relationship that you just can't get in between."
Chris Cuomo has been at the forefront of coronavirus news coverage, documenting his own experience with the virus as an anchor for CNN, while brother Andrew works to manage the pandemic as the governor of New York. Both have garnered a growing fanbase of self-proclaimed "Cuomosexuals," which Bella finds kind of surreal.
"It's kind of weird to open TikTok up and see people calling my family members hot," the teen admitted. "Like, that's a weird experience."
However, while the surging interest in the family has many on social media swooning over her dad and uncle, to Bella, they're just family.
"Most of the time it's like, yeah, dancing around, just thinking he can sing," she joked of her dad, "doing it real loud so everyone can hear it."
However, the teen sweetly admitted that "I don't think that I could have a better family situation. We are so close, my cousins and I have a group chat called 'Cousins by Chance, Friends by Choice.'"
So, would she ever consider following her family's footsteps into politics or journalism?
"I wouldn't say like, I would never pursue either of those things," Bella said. "I really like to stay informed, I have really strong views... I can see myself getting to college and being like, 'Oh actually, maybe I want to do this,' but for now, I'm pretty focused on acting and singing, and I do a lot of theater at school. I go to a theater camp, and that's what I love to do. And the dream is to do what you love every day. But I can see myself figuring out that I really want to do something else."
Bella and her mom are also getting active in another important family project: Kenneth Cole's new mental health initiative. The designer, who is Andrew and Chris' brother-in-law and Bella's uncle, recently launched a new coalition aimed at destigmatizing mental health issues in America, with the help of celeb pals like Justin and Hailey Bieber, Kendall Jenner and more.
"May is Mental Health Awareness Month," noted Cristina, who is also the founder of online wellness magazine Purist. "As such, I've been doing a series of live talks on my Instagram, engaging with leaders and mental health advocates... I've always been an advocate for the experts, to give them a voice, because they need to be heard the most."
"We also, on the live videos, have been talking about mindfulness and offer meditation too, with some great mediation masters," she added. "You can see the viewers' comments and the appreciation they have for this, being able to connect with someone with so much knowledge to give them thoughtful ideas and things to look into. 'Maybe this will help me solve this problem I'm experiencing and why I’m not sleeping well,' all these different ways to get through this very stressful time."
See more on how the family is coping during the pandemic in the video below.
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