Ask anyone with five kids and they’ll tell you there’s never a dull moment with that kind of handful. Ask Hugh Grant, and he’ll say some of the most relatable things you’ve ever heard in your life.
Grant is currently doing press ahead of his new movie Wonka. When asked how he spends his downtime while filming in the UK, he joked, “Well, I live here and I have no fun at all. I’m swamped in children, and I’m too old for them.”
Grant is a dad to Tabitha, John, Felix and a daughter and a son whose names he’s never revealed publicly. Despite being notoriously private about his family life, he’s dropped the occasional story about his kids, and every single one of them is a gift.
In 2018, he told People magazine about how he loves to make his kids laugh.
“I think it’s always amusing to put your underpants on your head,” he said. “I made the mistake of showing one of my sons my ass all the time. ‘Hey, look at this!’ Then he got the habit and taught every single child in west London to do the same.”
He also spoke at the time about how he had learned to balance his career with spending time with his growing family.
“I thought, ‘Oh, fantastic opportunity to get away from my screaming children,’” he recalled of his opportunity to film The Undoing in the U.S. that year. “As soon as I got to New York each time … I missed them so much. It was awful. I remember almost every scene I acted in made me cry.”
In a 2020 interview with Radio Times magazine, Grant shared a bit about his parenting style.
“Stylistically, I’m probably more like my mother than my father,” he said. “As children, she was quite silly with us with lots of silly voices. I do that with my children, but I’m not sure they enjoy it. They roll their eyes half the time.”
He also added that it’s “damned nice” having a large family.
“Anyone with young children would probably agree that it’s simultaneously the worst time in your life and the best,” he said. “On a day-to-day basis, as you tread on another broken toy with a hangover, it’s just awful. But when you look back at the photographs on your iPhone, you realize, ‘Oh, I have been extremely happy. This is very nice.’”