Elizabeth Smart Opens Up About Sharing Her Kidnapping Story With Her Children

As Elizabeth tells E! News, she believes that her traumatic ordeal makes her a far more watchful parent than she might have otherwise been. She and husband Matthew Gilmour tied the knot in 2012 and share 3-year-old James and 2-year-old Olivia, in addition to Chloé. 

“I’m probably more into helicopter parents than I would have imagined,” the Smart Talks podcast host admits. “And it also makes me think that I’ll never regret checking on my children or spending that extra time to look after them or watch them. I’ll never regret it. I might regret not spending time with them or not looking after them for that moment. So, I think it’s probably made me a more conscious parent.”

As for her time on The Masked Dancer, she says she has zero regrets, even though she “can’t dance to save my life.” Her initial reaction was that the producers were “crazy for asking me,” and she adds about her stint on the show, “Honestly, it was the most terrifying thing I have ever voluntarily done.”

But she ultimately decided that appearing on the program would be a fitting tribute to her late grandmother, who passed away last year and was an avid dancer, even into her later years of life. 

“I’m pretty sure she wasn’t scared of anything,” Elizabeth says. “And I thought, I want to be able to look back on my life and feel the same way. For all of the heavy, serious things that I’ve done, I want to be able to look back and laugh.”