Hugh Grant has built a career out of portraying caddish and irreverent characters on-screen, but when it comes to his five children, he’s nothing but sweetness and light.
True to form, the “Bridget Jones’s Diary” actor was jovial while discussing fatherhood in an appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” this week ― that is, until the chat took a surprisingly sentimental turn.
“There’s a lot to dread, because I’m old and it’s noisy and it’s unbearable,” Grant said, when asked about being a dad of five. “I do a lot of hiding in the loo. I do a lot of sleeping in there now.”
After noting that he was heading home after the interview, he added, “Let’s face it, the bit where they jump in your arms ― the 6-year-old, you know, she calls it her chimpanzee hug. I quite like that.”
Grant’s final remark drew an audible sigh from the crowd, at which point he joked, “I’ve made myself cry!”
Watch a clip of Hugh Grant’s “Kelly Clarkson Show” interview below.
The 64-year-old and his wife of six years, Anna Eberstein, are parents to son John Mungo, 12, as well as daughters Lulu Danger, 8, and Blue, 6. He also shares a 13-year-old daughter, Tabitha Xaio Xi, and an 11-year-old son, Felix Chang, with Tinglan Hong.
Grant was 51 when he became a dad for the first time in 2011. In interviews since then, he’s been candid about how fatherhood has changed his approach to his Hollywood career while also joking about the effect his age has on his parenting style.
“It’s just lovely to have all that love around,” he told People magazine in 2018. “Suddenly you love someone more than yourself. It’s unheard of in my case. And they love you, and it’s all enchanting …. What’s nice is when work comes along, it tends to be a bit more challenging. I’m too old and ugly to be the young leading man in romantic comedies now, thank God.”
Hugh Grant and wife Anna Eberstein are the parents of three children. The “Bridget Jones’s Diary” actor also has two children with Tinglan Hong. Jeff Spicer via Getty Images
Grant offered similar sentiments in a 2020 Los Angeles Times interview in which he cheekily described himself as “an old man with very young children and a very exhausted wife” who was primarily focused on “survival from hour to hour in terms of childcare.”
“When you say how have I changed as an actor, I strongly suspect that having these children has really helped,” he said. “Because suddenly, instead of being a half-atrophied, middle-aged golfer, I’m a man with a life full of love. I love my wife, I love my children. They love me. And, suddenly — very unusual for an Englishman — I have all this access to emotion. Almost too much access. Sometimes it’s hard to keep it down.”
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