Raising a baby can be a magical experience — just ask Daniel Radcliffe, who welcomed his first child with girlfriend Erin Darke in April. In a rare new interview about his baby boy, the Harry Potter alum opened up about fatherhood and the tricky way parenting can be both the best and the worst thing.
Daniel Radcliffe Says Babies Are “Awesome” & “Terrifying”
“He’s great, it’s amazing,” Radcliffe told E! Newsabout his son at the opening night of his Broadway show, Merrily We Roll Along. “There’s a short answer and a long answer to that. And the short answer is it’s awesome and he’s the best thing that’s ever happened.”
But, just like magic can sometimes be unexpected and scary, parenthood isn’t always awesome. “It’s frankly terrifying to have a human being in the world that I care this much about,” Radcliffe added. “And that everything he does is going to affect how I feel about my life for the rest of my life. So, you know, that’s intimidating.”
Uh, yeah! From deciding on a baby name to taking care of them, teaching them, and loving them, parenthood is a lot of responsibility. Even if you’re prepared for it, you can never truly know what it’s like until you become a parent yourself. And by then, you’re already in the trenches! For someone who’s faced Voldemort multiple times to call parenting “terrifying,” you know it has to be true!
The Exhaustion Is Real
The Miracle Workers actor also shared some important truths he’s learned about newborns and their sleep.
“There’s no relation to what we need for sleep,” he told E! “The less I sleep, the more I sleep at night. But the less they sleep, the less they sleep! And the more they sleep, the better they sleep! It makes no sense, but it is apparently how they work.” Ah, yes. I definitely remember learning this with my firstborn. After mistakenly thinking that keeping my baby up later would help him sleep later, I quickly discovered that he would wake up earlier (and more often in the night) if he didn’t get enough shut eye.
But even if we are exhausted, we still love our babies. Radcliffe explained the phenomenon: “The fact that there is a creature in the world that can give you the worst night of your life, and then you wake up in the morning and go over to them and they turn around and smile and you’re like, ‘I don’t care about any of the things you just did,’” he said. “That’s pretty cool.”
“It’s been a really wonderful year,” Radcliffe continued. “And I couldn’t wish to be in a better place.” Aww!
Baby Picketer
In July, Radcliffe and Darke brought their baby to the picket line to support the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists strike after failed negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Darke wore a shirt that read “SAG-AFTRA Strong,” while Radcliffe carried his baby in a carrier strapped to his chest. Such a cool moment!
He may be terrified, but we can already tell Radcliffe is killing it at being a dad.
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