THE FAMILY WAY

Ingo Rademacher's Most Cherished Role Is Father To His Two Sons

- Mara Levinsky

Earlier this year, when working parents across the country were forced to make an abrupt adjustment to a new lifestyle brought about by stay-at-home orders — one punctuated by constant family togetherness and homeschooling — it was more or less business as usual for Ingo Rademacher and his family.

The GH star and his wife of 10 years, Ehiku, you see, were already homeschooling their two sons, Pohaku, 8, and Peanut, 12 next month (“an almost-teenager now — a whole new world!”), and togetherness was already a way of life. And, as luck would have it, in mid-February, the family had closed on a condo in their favored vacation spot, Mammoth Lakes, a five-hour drive from L.A. Save for the long hours spent renovating its outdated kitchen and bathrooms (“What a project that was!”), the actor says, “We didn’t really feel the quarantine at all because we were just doing what we would normally up there,” including cross-country skiing and daily runs. “It was definitely a good place to be stuck!”

Talking to Rademacher, it’s clear that he’s passionate about what he calls a “hands-on” approach to parenting. He has many happy memories of his own father (“We were constantly making things — I’d be like, ‘Okay, Dad. I want you to make me a sword, and I need a bow and arrow....’ ”), but notes, “Dad was busy a lot of the time.... My sister actually suffered more under my dad not really being there for her emotionally, but to me, it wasn’t an issue at all because, you know, boys are all, ‘Whatever, it’s all good!’ ”