It’s an early June evening and Liv Tyler has just returned from an emergency dentist appointment with her nearly 3-year-old daughter, Lula.
“I hate scooters. Whoever invented the scooter is an a–hole. Seriously. What is happening?” Liv says, her signature breathy voice belying her dismay.
The day prior, Lula fell in a London park while scooting, bashing her lip open and chipping her front tooth.
“We just went to the dentist, and he was able to bond the front of it a little bit. She has the prettiest teeth ever. They are perfect. I actually — literally — take pictures of them. There’s just something about her smile,” the mom of four gushes.
“And everyone keeps saying: ‘[The baby teeth] are just going to fall out anyway.’ I’m like, ‘Not for six years! What do you mean?’” she continues with a laugh. “Oh God. I hope it doesn’t turn black.”
It’s just another day in the world of Liv — world-famous actress, do-it-all mom and fiancée of David Gardner, 42, a sports and entertainment manager (and David Beckham BFF).
The couple, who moved from NYC to London three years ago, have two young children together: Lula, who will turn 3 next week, and 4-year-old son, Sailor. Tyler also has a 14-year-old son, Milo, with ex-husband Royston Langdon (the lead singer of Spacehog), while Gardner has a son, Gray, 11, with his ex-wife, Davinia Taylor. “It’s so much action at home!” says Liv, 42.
When she’s not wrangling children, the actress stars in Hulu’s “Harlots,” an 18th-century period drama about warring British brothels. (Season 3 debuts July 10.) She plays Lady Isabella Fitzwilliam, a noblewoman who is oppressed by her brother and finds unexpected friendship — and love — in courtesan Charlotte Wells.
“I was sad on my last day [of filming Season 3], because I was like, ‘I don’t know if I will ever wear this again,’” says Liv, who spent roughly three hours in hair, makeup and wardrobe on set each day.
“It’s a bit tedious because it takes so long and is a little uncomfortable,” she says. “But in the end, it’s so fun to get to be this person, you know?”
Those corsets and cages are a far cry from her bohemian upbringing. She grew up between NYC and Maine with her mother, Bebe Buell, a former Playboy Playmate and the inspiration for Kate Hudson’s “Almost Famous” groupie character, Penny Lane.
As a child, Liv assumed her mother’s on-and-off-again boyfriend, rocker Todd Rundgren, was her father. But by age 9, she began to have other suspicions after meeting Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler at a concert and feeling an instantaneous bond. At another show two years later, she met her half-sister, Mia Tyler, backstage; Liv took in Mia’s mirror-image full lips and sloped nose and confirmed the life-changing connection.
Despite Steven’s struggles with drugs at the time, he and Liv eventually became close — the rock star rushed to the hospital when Sailor was born six weeks early, arriving just in time to cut the baby’s umbilical cord.
“I never would have dreamed in a million years [that I’d be] having a baby with my dad there,” reflects Liv. “It was an amazing experience.”
She says that her children are “just fascinated” with their famous grandfather when they get the chance to see him. “He sort of takes you on adventures and tells you things no one else would ever tell you,” says Liv, who jots down her father’s adages in her phone.
“He always says, ‘There is no way out, but through.’ I was going through a particularly hard time in my life a long time ago, and didn’t know how to deal with it, and I wrote that down. I really appreciate finding those little gems in our conversations.”
It’s advice that’s served her well over decades in front of the camera. She first started modeling at age 14. “The career aspect took off quicker than I anticipated,” she says, adding that it wasn’t a perfect fit.
“I am not so great with authority and being told what to do,” she admits. “It was a more natural progression for me to be acting.”
She then famously starred (alongside Alicia Silverstone) in Aerosmith’s cult-favorite 1993 music video, “Crazy,” before making her feature-film debut a year later in “Silent Fall.” Since then, she’s played everything from Arwen Undómiel in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy to the captivatingly enigmatic cult leader Meg Abbott on HBO’s “The Leftovers.”
Up next? The new space flick “Ad Astra” — out Sept. 20 — in which she stars as Brad Pitt’s wife.
“Oh my goodness. He’s beautiful, and he’s so special and magical, but I was really taken by what an amazing actor he is!” Liv says. “He’s so present and so open.”
(It’s a trait Liv shares: “I’m such an in-the-moment person. I have to work really hard to not go astray. I can talk to a cab driver for an hour and be late for my appointment,” she says with a laugh.)
She’d also love to launch her own skin care line in the near future, along with a lingerie collection.
“I have a crazy collection of undergarments in my closet upstairs,” says Tyler. “If I ever find something that’s really good, even if it no longer fits, I hold onto it.”
Which might explain her new obsession with the art of home organizing.
“I have the Marie Kondo book. I’ve got Martha Stewart. I’ve got, like, every book you could ever imagine,” she says, adding that her weak spot is packing.
“I am not so great with authority and being told what to do.”
“I’m terrible. I just get the biggest bag I can and throw everything in. I don’t even fold things anymore,” she says. “I just lay it all across. I really admire a light packer. It shows great confidence and organization.”
But her true passion, says the A-lister, is plumbing.
“I’m a secret plumber. I’m always hanging out with my plumber,” says Liv, who just had dinner with her NYC plumber, John, whom she’s known for years.
She also recently bonded with her “Harlots” driver, who used to own a plumbing company. The two hung out in the boiler room of her West London townhouse after work one day, investigating a water issue.
“That’s the kind of stuff that gets me going,” she says with a laugh.
One thing that’s not on her to-do list (at least in the immediate future) is a blowout wedding.
“We definitely don’t have any plans to get married,” says Liv, who got engaged to Gardner in 2015. “We’ve been on this crazy whirlwind of babies and moving countries and working and trying to create a stable home. Marriage is not a huge thing to me — partnership is.”
So any plans to add a fifth child to the partnership?
“Ugh, no way, José!” she says. “We’ve got our hands full. We have a very, very blessed home.”
Fashion Editor: Serena French; Stylist: Anahita Moussavian; Hair: Peter Butler at Tracey Mattingly; Makeup: Genevieve Herr at Sally Harlor; Manciure: Gina Eppolito at GiNails Inc.