Lifestyle Food Why Giada De Laurentiis Won't Let Daughter Jade, 14, Pursue Acting Just Yet "We are encouraging it. We're just not taking that giant leap yet," Giada De Laurentiis tells PEOPLE By Glenn Garner Glenn Garner Glenn Garner is a form writer-reporter who worked heavily with PEOPLE's Movies and TV verticals. He left PEOPLE in 2023. People Editorial Guidelines and Ana Calderone Ana Calderone Ana Calderone is the Digital Food Editor at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2013. People Editorial Guidelines Published on April 4, 2022 05:28PM EDT Giada De Laurentiis has a budding starlet on her hands. The Food Network star, 51, tells PEOPLE that although her 14-year-old daughter Jade "wanted a role" in her new Hallmark movie Always Amore, on which De Laurentiis serves as an executive producer, she's not quite ready to let her daughter pursue acting. "That girl has been bugging me to allow her to do auditions for off-Broadway shows for years and I'm like, 'No,'" she explains. "'You're not moving to New York. You're not doing this. You have to be a child. It's important to be a child. It only happens once in your life." Giada De Laurentiis Talks Love and 'Parallels' Between Her Life and Hallmark Movie Always Amore "In fact, she wanted a role in this movie, too," De Laurentiis adds of Always Amore. "She doesn't fear anything. She's like, 'I can do it. I know I can do it. I just have to work at it but I can do it.' It's amazing to watch. It truly is. I did not have that kind of self-confidence for sure when I was a kid." De Laurentiis previously shared a glimpse of Jade's performance in the titular role of her school's production of Matilda the Musical. But the chef says the vocal chops didn't come from her side of the family. "I don't know where the heck she got that," she says. "People ask me all the time and I said, 'I have no idea.' Nobody in my family could sing. My grandmother was a great actress and she was a fabulous dancer but she could not. She was tone deaf." "So she definitely didn't get it there. I don't know where she got it, but I've always said that I felt I was just a vehicle with which Jade needed to come into this world. But that she is her own person and she was from day one. And she knows what her mission is in this life. And it's pretty incredible to watch a young child really know what they love and go after it," she raves. Giada De Laruentiis/Instagram The Simply Giada star notes that her daughter is enrolling in a performing arts high school and is planning to attend a theater camp this summer, in addition to several creative extracurriculars. "So, we are encouraging it. We're just not taking that giant leap yet," De Laurentiis explains. "I'm a little scared. She's still a cub." De Laurentiis and her ex-husband Todd Thompson, Jade's father, "will consider" letting her act professionally when she turns 15 next year. "Until then, no acting," says De Laurentiis. RELATED VIDEO: Giada De Laurentiis' Boyfriend Went 'the Whole Nine Yards' Cooking Her Steak on Valentine's Day De Laurentiis says that her dynamic with Jade "relates back to" Always Amore. "It's difficult to be a single mom... trying to balance the work life with your home life and your children," she notes. The film follows restaurant owner Elizabeth (Autumn Reeser) as she struggles to keep her late husband's Italian eatery running after his passing. It's not till she meets Ben (Tyler Hynes), a restaurant consultant, that she becomes open to necessary changes, and potentially, new love. De Laurentiis shares Jade with Thompson, 59, to whom she was married from 2003 to 2015. She has since been dating producer Shane Farley. Watch Always Amore on Tuesday, April 5 at 7/6c on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.