Neil Patrick Harris brutally insults his children in rare parenting admission
Neil Patrick Harris refused to hold back while discussing his two children in a brand new interview, slamming the pair as 'c***s'.
The How I Met Your Mother actor caught up with Made In Chelsea star Jamie Laing for the latter's Great Company podcast this week, with both parties admitting that becoming fathers had made them more emotional than they'd ever expected.
"I've cried more in the last three or four years than I've ever cried in my whole life, because of being a father and having kids," Harris, 53, confessed.
As a reminder, Harris and his husband, chef and actor David Burtka - who married in 2014 after going public seven years earlier - welcomed twins Harper Grace and Gideon Scott via surrogate in October 2010.
Advert
The twins were conceived using an anonymous egg donor, with one of Harris' sperm and one of Burtka's sperm used in the process.
Both embryos successfully implanted, meaning each dad is the biological father of one child – although, famously, the couple chose not to find out which twin is biologically whose.
Seconds after discussing how teary his kids often make him, however, the US actor gave listeners whiplash with the savage way he chose to describe what it's like to raise teenagers.
"They're teenagers now, and they're c**ts," he joked, triggering laughs from Laing's team. "I can say that? I'm in the UK, that's a positive thing?
"They know exactly what to say that will be the most damaging emotionally to themselves, to siblings, to each other, and to us," Harris continued.
"And so, I find myself, like, overwhelmed and rattled by myself, like after conflict that I thought would be effective and was not, and just sitting, like, 'What? How did I go so wrong?'"
Harris' twins have already demonstrated that they are more than capable of giving their dads a hard time.
Earlier this year, Harper and Gideon made a rare public appearance with Harris and Burtka at a Family Equality gala in New York, where the couple were honoured with the Luminary Award.
Speaking about their achievements on stage, Gideon joked: "We had twice the dad jokes, and zero the improvement."
Harper then poked fun at one of Harris' most famous characters, teenage doctor Doogie Howser, saying that whenever she is 'confused or doubting' herself, her dad tells her: "What would Doogie do?"
So, if we're honest, we can't help but sympathise with Harris' latest comments.
After Laing - who welcomed his first child, a son, Ziggy, with wife Sophie Habboo last year - claimed during their chat that discussions on fatherhood often leave him unexpectedly teary-eyed, Harris explained why he believes having children fundamentally changes the way you see your own life.
"I think you're not quite so myopic and selfish, right?" he said. "There are repercussions and other lives at stake, literally."
Before having children, Harris explained, you can be much more spontaneous with your decisions.
"Before you have kids, you could say, 'Well, f**k it, I'll go and do that tonight', or 'Let's change the plan'. But you can't really change big plans.
"Don't you think that you have to look at things in large arcs now that you're a parent?"
Elsewhere during the show, Harris - who came out as a 'very content gay man' in 2006 - also admitted that, growing up, he never imagined that having children would necessarily be part of his life.
Asked whether he had always wanted to be a father, he said he thought he would be a 'good dad', but his sexuality meant he hadn't necessarily pictured parenthood as a realistic outcome.
"But I knew that I was gay when I was, you know, in my early teens," he explained. "So, I never really imagined that as the probable outcome, being a parent. I didn't date until super late, so I didn't have the whole idea of, like, coupling up enough then have kids."
Harris concluded: "[It] just seemed so far away from the story that I was currently telling. I just never imagined it would happen."
Topics: Celebrity, Parenting, Podcasts, Neil Patrick Harris
Rhianna Benson