Chris Pratt has jokingly shared he didn’t know how to spell his daughter’s name for quite some time.
The Guardians of the Galaxy star, 44, recently appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, in which he spoke about being a girl dad to daughters Lyla Maria, three, and Eloise Christina, two, who he shares with wife Katherine Schwarzenegger.
“My daughter likes to play this game with me called ‘No!’” Pratt told host Jimmy Fallon during Thursday’s episode. “I’m not very good at the game, and she always wins because she says no. And I did not know you were allowed to say that to your parents. Like, I grew up never being able to say no to my parent.”
The Parks and Recreation alum also brought with him a drawing his older daughter Lyla had made, as Fallon held it up to the audience. Pratt explained that Lyla wrote her younger sister’s name on the drawing, and expressed his shock that his toddler knew how to spell “Eloise” at such a young age.
“Eloise… I did not know how to spell it until I saw this photo," Pratt joked. “I was like, ‘There’s no Y?’ It made no sense.”
The camera then zoomed in on his daughter Lyla’s drawing, with the name “Eloise” spelled out in marker. “Look at this. She spelled that and she’s only three-and-a-half-years-old,” The Garfield Movie actor pointed out.
“That’s not too shabby right there,” Fallon quipped.
Earlier this week, the Jurassic World star and the children’s book author – who have been married since 2019 – celebrated their daughter Eloise’s second birthday. Taking to Instagram, Schwarzenegger, 34, posted a photo of Eloise in her pajamas, posing in front of a “2” balloon.
“Our baby girl is 2!” she captioned the post. “The smiliest, silliest, strongest willed, love girl! I love you to the moon and back and more and more! Happy BIRTHday!”
Pratt reposted the photo on his Instagram Story, writing: "Happy birthday baby girl, mommy and daddy love you more than words.”
In addition to his daughters Lyla and Eloise, Pratt is also a father to 11-year-old son Jack, who he shares with ex-wife Anna Faris. The fellow actors were married in 2009 after meeting on the set of the 2007 film Take Me Home Tonight. They announced their split in August 2017 and finalised their divorce in October 2018, four months after he began dating Schwarzenegger.
Pratt proposed to Schwarzenegger, the daughter of Maria Shriver and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, in January 2019 and they were married in June that year. They welcomed daughter Lyla in August 2020 and Eloise in May 2022.
Earlier this month, the Passengers star admitted that he parents his son differently than his two daughters. Speaking to E! News on 13 May, Pratt explained why he’s noticed a “big difference” raising Jack compared to Lyla and Eloise. “I hate to make generalizations based on gender but, in my experience, girls are more emotional," he said. “They’ve got me wrapped around their finger. It’s wild.”
While Pratt noted that all his children are “cuddly and snuggly”, he shared that his daughters require a softer touch and “don’t like to rough house as much”.
“I’ll hit them with a pillow and they’ll go, ‘Daddy, that hurt my feelings,’” he said of playing with his daughters. “They like to hear stories more than they like to wrestle.”
Pratt also pointed out that another “big difference” between raising his son and his daughters is the amount of planning that goes into their daily lives. While he admitted that his girls “take after their mother, who is incredibly organized”, Pratt maintained that every child is different.
“But even the differences between my two daughters just goes to show that every child is a little bit different,” he added.
