Patricia Heaton talks about career, motherhood

For Patricia Heaton, the last 20 years appear to have been a motherhood marathon.

“You can see where people might think that,” says the Emmy-winning actress, who played the long-suffering wife and mother of three on the CBS comedy Everybody Loves Raymond.

Heaton, 56, stars as the matriarch on ABC’s The Middle. And Heaton and her actor-husband, David Hunt, are part of the ensemble cast in the family comedy Moms’ Night Out.

Oh yes, Heaton and Hunt have four sons, ages 15 to 20. So, bring on that tidal wave of Mother’s Day memories.

“Zero Mother’s Day memories,” Heaton says, smiling. “I don’t really have any Mother’s Day memories because my children have not created them for me.”

Her sons “didn’t want to come out to the premiere of Moms’ Night Out,” she says. “They don’t watch The Middle. They are too busy with their lives.”

And that’s exactly as Heaton wants it.

“There’s too many kids who grow up as the children of celebrities who cannot find their own identities,” she says, adding that one of her children wants to become an actor.

Heaton says she didn’t move to Los Angeles until her early 30s. “And it’s not like I moved here and I was (supermodel) Kate Upton,” she says.

She earned two Emmy Awards for Raymond, but The Middle rarely gets media attention or awards-group love.

“You know, Raymond took a really long time to get into the zeitgeist,” she says. “I think it’s just more of a low-key kind of humor.”

Heaton says Moms’ Night Out is a film about families. “It’s kind of where I live now in my life, with my kids.”