Ashley Iaconnetti Shares Her Kids' Favorite Meals and Who the Pickiest Eater in Her Family Is (Exclusive)
Ashley Iaconnetti Shares Her Kids' Favorite Meals and Who the Pickiest Eater in Her Family Is (Exclusive)
Chiara KimTue, June 23, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC
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Ashley Iaconnetti, Jared Haibon and their two sonsCredit: Jared Haibon/instagram -
Ashley Iaconnetti says she shares her kids' love for Cheerios as she partners with the brand on its new protein cereal
The reality star also reveals the comfort foods she and her kids have in common
She talks about filming Real Housewives of Rhode Island while raising two young sons and credits a strong support system
Ashley Iaconnetti and her kids have some favorite foods in common!
The Real Housewives of Rhode Islandstar and Bachelor franchise alum tells PEOPLE that she and her kids share a love for Cheerios and pasta.
The reality TV star shares two sons, Dawson, 4, and Hayden, who is almost 2, with Jared Haibon, who she met in 2015 while filming the second season of Bachelor in Paradise.
Iaconnetti says she shares an affinity with her sons for Cheerios. She partnered with the brand on its Cheerios Protein Honey Nut flavor.
She shares that Cheerios were one of the first foods she gave her kids when she was introducing them to solid foods.
“Jared, it is his top choice for [a] midnight snack, I love it for an afternoon snack,” she adds of the cereal. “It's in the crevices of our cars.”
Iaconnetti says her older son is pickier than her youngestCredit: ashley_iaconetti/Instagram
“The floor always has a Cheerio on it because the kids just carry around little snack containers with it all day long,” she adds.
The added protein in the new cereal is a bonus for the family. “I love the fact that the kids and I and Jared are getting a little added protein without a protein-y taste,” Iaconnetti says.
It's “great, especially for my four year old who's a very picky eater,” she adds. “Chicken nuggets is basically his only form of protein besides the Honey Nut Cheerios now.”
While Dawson prefers chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese and pasta with red sauce, Iaconnetti says her younger son will eat almost anything.
“Anything that I give him, he usually eats,” she says. However, “sometimes he has a craving, and he can't communicate that.”
“I'll be like, ‘is this what you want in the fridge? Is this what you want?' And he's like, ‘no, no, no,' and then, you know, he's trying to guide my hand to what he wants,” she adds.
In terms of her own comfort meals, Iaconnetti says she opts for a “kids' meal," too.
Ashley Iaconnetti says she and her family all love CheeriosCredit: General Mills
“We do a lot of pasta in this house, and if I were to just really indulge and have the ultimate at home comfort meal, I'd probably have hot dogs and macaroni and cheese, like a kids' meal,” she says, adding, “also, meatloaf is so good, and I kind of learned how to make meatloaf this past winter.”
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Iaconnetti shares that filming Real Housewives while raising her kids has its challenges.
“The balance is hard. We somehow manage” she says. “Thank goodness we have a good support team. We have a good village here helping out with the kids, but the shoot months are long and hard, but worth it.”
She adds that the experience has been positive so far.
“Nothing's aired or was filmed that I felt uncomfortable with having the family involved in,” she says. “I feel like Jared and I have a pretty good grasp on ourselves, honestly, and how we want our family's life to go.”
“We just are true to ourselves while filming it,” she adds.
She says that filming this show is different from her and Haibon's time on The Bachelor, though she notes that that experience “will always be super special” to the couple because of the friends and community they found, as well as meeting each other.
“It's a little different just because you are leaving your regular life and you're living in a bubble there,” she says.
“You have to surrender everything going to go shoot Bachelor,” she continues. “When you shoot Housewives, it's kind of like they're coming into your regular life, and not only do you have to shoot and show your regular life, let them in, but also balance work and family time and all of that.”
Cheerios allowed Iaconnetti to revisit her Bachelor days.
The brand launched a campaign around its new protein cereal flavor with a limited-edition engagement-themed blind-box ring collection, per a release shared with PEOPLE. Fans can try to win a surprise ring and a box of the cereal for $8 at HoneyNutsForYou.com on June 23 at 1 p.m. ET, with a second drop on June 30 at 1 p.m. ET.
The “Honey Nuts For You” collection includes an 8K gold-plated ring, a silver ring inspired by cereal spoons, a black-and-yellow striped ring and a ring featuring a rose-gold honeycomb pattern and honey-colored enamel.
Iaconnetti shares that she loves the idea of the campaign, adding that it taps into her memories of digging to the bottom of Cheerios boxes as a kid to find prizes at the bottom.
“[The ring] comes in this box, like a real ring box, and it's all about accepting this as your top favorite choice protein, and I have said yes to this because it is probably my favorite source of protein right now,” the Bachelor alum says.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
