Lisa Ann Walter Says She 'Had to Be the Father Figure' to Her Twin Boys as Single Mother: 'I Filled in'

The mother of four welcomed her two youngest, twins Spencer and Simon, in October 2000

Lisa Ann Walter is reflecting on raising her twin boys as a "struggling" single mother — and how she stepped up when their father "wasn't as involved."

During an appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show on Friday, April 12, the Abbott Elementary star and mother of four, 60, detailed the differences in raising each of her kids and how her twin boys Spencer and Simon, now 23, required her to take on an additional role.

"The twins, the youngest ones, I had to kind of be the father figure to them because their dad wasn't as involved," Walter said. "My older two, the dad is great... but the younger ones didn't have that, so I filled in for that."

"People think if you're in a movie or they know you from something, that you're a gazillionaire. Sheryl Lee Ralph and I had a similar situation coming up. Because [audiences] see Sister Act 2, or they see The Parent Trap, they think we're making money every time that airs. It's not like that," she explained.

"We were both struggling single mothers in a very expensive town of Los Angeles."

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Related: Lisa Ann Walter's 4 Children: All About Jordan, Delia, Spencer and Simon

As Walter explained, she and Ralph took gigs that allowed them to support their children, which she called the "priority" over award nods or acclaim.

"With the boys, I had to be around because they were in high school. I wasn't gonna be an absent mother. So I had to not take any movies or anything that was gonna take me away, so I was a radio host for three years here in Los Angeles, so I could pick them up from school and make sure they were on the straight and narrow."

The comedian welcomed her two youngest boys in October 2000. She's also mom to 36-year-old son Jordan Baum and 32-year-old daughter Delia Baum, whom she shares with her first husband, Sam Baum.

Walter, who compared raising her younger kids to raising "vikings," also detailed how her four kids would "never pick up a phone call from me" and prefer texting her.

"Forget about FaceTime. Do kids talk on the phone anymore?" she asked the audience on Hudson's show. "[They] text. Quinta Brunson, text! I'm like, 'Hey girl,' she's like, 'Can you text me?'"

"My kids, I'll tell you what. I can be on fire and my kids will not call me. They'll be like this, 'Sup,' " she joked.

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