Rachel Boston Talks About Playing a Mother in Dating the Delanys After Becoming One in Real Life

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Rachel Boston has long been a fixture in our favorite feel good movies on Hallmark Channel and beyond. But she has now stepped into a new role both on and off the screen. At the start of 2022, Boston and her fiancé Toyla Ashe welcomed their first child, Grace.

"Becoming a mom has changed so much, as everyone told me that it would. And just overnight the focus and the shift of what I wanted for my daughter, it all transformed me and it transformed our lives," she recently told Southern Living.

In her latest project with Hallmark Channel, Dating the Delanys, the Tennessee-born actress is now playing a mom on screen as well. Boston is reunited in this movie with another Hallmark favorite, Paul Campbell. She told us about how the two of them acknowledge the shift to the next chapter of their careers, the new chapter of stories they can tell now with a certain authenticity from real life experience. "I'm just very excited to be a part of family programming right now too because having started working for Hallmark years and years ago, and then this transition now, Paul Campbell and I are both like, 'we're parents! Now we're the parents.' It's a fun journey to go on together."

Dating the Delanys, which premieres on Hallmark Channel on August 20, tells the story of three generations of women in the same family who are looking for love. Boston plays Maggie, a divorced mother and small business owner being encouraged to re-enter the dating scene by her friends and family. Maggie's mother Barb, played by Karen Kruper is a widow who has found a new love after loss. And Maggie's teenage daughter Emma, played by Zoe Christie, is just beginning to date for the first time. Campbell plays Michael, a widower who is also just beginning to entertain the idea of finding love again. Michael and Maggie have a solid friendship and they help each other navigate through the roads of opening their hearts again. Boston said that she loved this story because it sends the message that, "it's possible to find love in every chapter of life."

It's a story of second chances. Maggie's mother, Michael, and Maggie herself. But it also takes a slightly different note than we've seen in other films on the network. The story touches on a very relatable but often uncomfortable issue for divorced families. "There's a moment where I get to stand up to my ex-husband who's not being a good father and I get to look at him and say, 'you can't do this anymore.' And that's something I'm just so proud to get to represent for women." Boston added, "to see empowered women speaking up and finding their voice. That was something I very much loved, loved getting to share."

"What was so exciting about this film and getting this opportunity is it's my first time on Hallmark playing a mother. And so to have just been in this beautiful bliss of new motherhood and then to get to go to set and do these scenes with my daughter in the show and then go back to my trailer and nurse my little 5 month old and know that these conversations are going to be coming ahead of us about romance and relationships. And that was really special," she said.

Baby Grace wasn't the only family member who came to work with Boston. "When I was on set my  mother was also there. So I had three generations with my family on set telling this story of three generations of women."

Also, while the movie was filmed in Vancouver, the story is set in Franklin, Tennessee, an area very familiar to the new mom. Boston relocated from California back to her home state in 2021. While she grew up in Chattanooga, she is replanting her roots now just outside of Nashville. Making this film set in Franklin, with Southern traditions sprinkled throughout, (be on the lookout for crawdaddies and sweet tea, y'all) and playing a mother, Boston said she felt several "Godwinks" and knew this was a very special project.

Boston also spoke to us about that big move back home after years and years in L.A. "There's just something so beautiful about being surrounded by people who have known you since you were born. And then also just the community that we do have here that I think you can find in many different places, but there is something just so unique and special about the South. And when I first had Grace, the amount of women that were dropping off chicken noodle soup or asking if I needed a grocery run. It was just so sweet."