Molly Bernard I couldn’t survive life as a new mother without Hilary Duff at his side.

On Friday, Nov. 8, the 36-year-old actress chatted with PEOPLE following her Broadway debut as Rachel Dahl in Cult of Lovea new show that follows the Dahls’ Christian family as they gather for a chaotic Christmas dinner.

Bernard describes her character to PEOPLE, saying, “I play Rachel Dahl, who is married to Mark, the eldest son. I’m Jewish, which is a little difficult for the hyper-Christian family we’re in,” she says : adding, “I think Rachel is a very important example of how family deals or doesn’t deal with difference. Rachel and Mark are on the precipice of a change in their marriage.”

In February 2023, Bernard and his wife Hannah Lieberman welcomed their first child, a “sassy little girl. ” She tells PEOPLE that she couldn’t have gotten through the last two years without the advice of Younger her co-star Duff, who is a mom to girls Cities6 months, Mae James3, and Banks Purple5 years old, with her husband Matthew Koma and her son Lucas Cruz12 years old, with her ex-husband Mike Comrie.

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“Every day she gives me advice about motherhood,” Bernard, who is godmother to Duff’s four children, tells PEOPLE. “I just call her ‘Mom,’ and I even stopped saying, ‘Sorry, I’m transferring on you.’ It’s just: “Hi mom!”

She adds that when it comes to motherhood, “You can’t do it alone. It’s the most humbling and exhilarating experience. And you don’t just need a village, you have need a whole community of cheerleaders and people who are going to do it with you.”

Bernard shares with PEOPLE that his daughter and Duff’s children are great friends and that their age gaps are “perfectly distributed” between each other.

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“I feel like my daughter was a nice little preparation for their new baby that’s coming,” Bernard adds of Duff and Koma’s newborn Townes. “They’re obsessed with her. It’s awesome.”

Becoming a mother to her little girl was “the most incredible experience of my life,” Bernard told PEOPLE, adding, “I know it’s cliché.”

“I was terrified of becoming a mom. It’s scary! And it’s the biggest, most loving thing that’s ever happened to me,” she says sweetly.