A little rough-housing comes with the territory of having kids — as does stickiness, silliness, and downright sweetness. As a dad of five young kids, Hugh Grant has seen it all, but there’s one part that he finds “unbearable.”
The Love Actually star opened up about dad life on a Thursday interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show, joking with his signature dry humor that he “makes my children watch one of my films every evening and laugh at my jokes. If they don’t, they don’t get fed.” Can you imagine?
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The British actor shares daughters Blue, 6, Lulu, 8, and son John Mungo, 12, with wife Anna Eberstein, and daughter Tabitha Xiao Xi, 13, and son Felix Chang Hong, 11, with ex Tinglan Hong. Clarkson commented that he has “a lot of kids,” and Grant jokingly responded, “Yeah, I know, I went mad in my fifties.”
Anna Elisabet Eberstein and Hugh Grant at the premiere of “Wonka” held at Regency Village Theatre on December 10, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty Images)
“Are you the jungle gym dad?” Clarkson asked, referring to a parent who lets their kids “crawl all over” them.
“I love a bit of that, yeah,” the 64-year-old admitted. “I mean, there’s a lot to dread ‘cause it’s — I’m old and it’s noisy and it’s unbearable. And I do a lot of hiding in the loo.” (To be fair, so do we!) Grant continued, “I do a lot of sleeping in there now,” adding, “There’s a lock [on the bathroom], but they’ve pretty much broken it now.”
Then he got serious — and a little emotional. “I’m going home tonight and, you know, 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,” he said, getting teary-eyed. “I’ve made myself cry,” he quipped.
The Notting Hill actor revealed the unusual baby name process he used with his two youngest daughters in an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live last month. “I was in a bit of a panic with my wife on the day we named her and we thought it might be nice for her when she was older if she could say in bars that her middle name was ‘Danger,’” Grant revealed, per PEOPLE. “So her name is Lulu Danger Grant.”
To be fair, that’s pretty freaking cool! His youngest daughter is named Blue, which Grant says came about in another funny way. “Again I panicked about names with my wife so we asked [Lulu’s] elder brother [John] when she was on the way,” he continued. “We said, ‘There’s a new baby coming along, what should we call her?’ And he said, ‘Kevin,’ because that was his favorite Minion,” Grant recalled, referencing the movie Despicable Me. “And we did think about calling her Kevin but then we said, ‘You better think of something else.’ So he said Blue, because it was his favorite color.”
Before you go, check out these celebrities who have talked about the joys and challenges of being older parents.
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