'How I Met Your Mother''s Alyson Hannigan Reveals Real Reason She Never Watched 'How I Met Your Father' (Exclusive)

Alyson Hannigan starred as Lily Aldrin in the original long-running sitcom 'How I Met Your Mother,' which ended 10 years ago

For Alyson Hannigan, the nostalgia of the How I Met Your Mother spinoff was too much to bear.

Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE in partnership with Kevin's Natural Foods, Hannigan, 50, said that her original costar Cobie Smulders shot an episode of How I Met Your Father during its 2022 to 2024 run, "and she showed me a bunch of pictures from the set."

But looking at the images, "it kind of made my heart hurt," Hannigan said. "And I was like, ‘I don't think I'm ready to watch.' "

Smulders, 42, starred as Robin Scherbatsky alongside Hannigan, Josh Radnor, Jason Segel and Neil Patrick Harris in the original series. The actress made a cameo in the season 1 finale of HIMYF.

Related: Alyson Hannigan Celebrates 10th Anniversary of How I Met Your Mother's Series Finale: 'Can't Believe It'

Hannigan added that her husband, Alexis Denisof, also appeared in the new show as his HIMYM character Sandy Rivers, a fictional TV anchor. "I should have probably watched that episode," she joked.

Additionally, HIMYM director Pamela Fryman came on board to direct many of the spinoff's episodes. "So I should have [watched]," Hannigan added. "But I just couldn't. It just made me sad because I'm like, oh, that's the same set."

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The spinoff had a similar format as the original show, where instead of Bob Saget narrating the events that led to Ted Mosby (Radnor) meeting "the mother," Kim Cattrall narrated the show, which starred Hilary Duff.

The series only lasted two seasons, without ever revealing who the titular father was.

Related: Alyson Hannigan Remembers Working on 'How I Met Your Mother' as a 'Montage of Great Memories'

Elsewhere in the interview, Hannigan spoke about how special it was filming the final season of HIMYM. "I just remember being pretty emotional during it because there were a lot of 'last,' " she recalled. "We all took the year to really appreciate all the moments that, we've had so many of, in the however many seasons we did it."

Hannigan marked a decade since the show ended in April with an Instagram post, packed with stills from the sitcom.

"Truly can’t believe it has been 10 years now since the final episode ??," she wrote.

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