Téa Leoni: 'I Earned Every Line On My Face'

Téa Leoni has no issues with aging – or the wrinkles that go along with it.

“I earned every line on my face,” she tells emmy magazine‘s latest issue, on stands August 18. “Every mistake, every sunburn, every stress, every beautiful moment, every minute of a 30-hour labor – that was the first one – I’m wearing it. And I wonder why that isn’t considered, in its own way, gorgeous.”

The Madam Secretary star, 49, says as she’s gotten older, her priorities have shifted.

“Now I don t exercise for my ass, but so my heart doesn’t stop,” she says. “Things change.”

One thing that hasn’t stopped being a priority for the actress is being a parent to her daughter Madelaine West, 16, and son Kyd Miller, 13, whom she had with ex-husband David Duchovny.

“I am just staring at my children all the time,” Leoni tells the magazine. “The other day they said, ‘Mom, it’s creepy.’ I’m like, ‘I just want to watch you watch TV – I’m desperate for this time.’ And they’re like, ‘Seriously, knock it off.’ ”

It’s no wonder Leoni treasures her time with her children – her days on set can be 12 to 18 hours long.

“I actually believe my job and John Kerry’s job are comparable in terms of the hours,” Leoni says of the time commitment it takes to play the Secretary of State.

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While she loves her work, parenting will always be her main focus.

“My job security is really as a parent,” she says. “This show is the icing on the cake.”