By now you may have had a few hours to process the fact that Daniel Radcliffe, aka the actor who played The Boy Who Lived, is all grown up with a baby on the way. He isn’t the first former child star from the franchise to be expecting a kid, but it’s still jarring every time it has happened. It’s not just the Harry Potter fans who feel that way either. The actor himself has expressed how ‘weird’ the whole thing is.
Following in the footsteps of his co-star Rupert Grint, who had a baby back in 2020 with Georgia Groome, news broke over the weekend that Radcliffe and his longtime partner Erin Darke are having a child together. The two were seen out and captured by photographers with Darke sporting a baby bump, and the rep for The Lost City star confirmed the two are expecting. Radcliffe is 33 and Darke is 38.
The two were out and about in New York City when the news broke. She wore some killer orange boots, which normally would have been what I was focused on, but given she seemed to be sporting a baby bump, the fans grew curious and ultimately the couple shared their big news (via ET). Interestingly, the news comes after Radcliffe has expressed how strange and surreal the last few years have been as the grown-up Potter cast has started popping out their own kids.
Daniel Radcliffe Is Still Getting Used To The Idea Of Harry Potter Stars As Parents
Daniel Radcliffe is very empathetic to the idea that the cast from the famous Wizarding World having kids now is probably something that feels shocking and makes the aging fandom feel quite old. He said in a previous interview about Grint having a baby:
Look we’re not as close as we once were, but technically I’ve Rupert [Grint] and Tom [Felton], I’ve texted them actually both quite a bit recently because of Rupert’s baby. I mean that is like still wild to me that we are now at the stage where we are having kids and I’m sure that is a fact that makes the rest of the world feel very old.
In a separate interview around the same time, he told Bravo host Andy Cohen the whole idea of the cast having kids felt “super weird.”
It's also, like, super weird for me to think that we are all at the age where we are having children but we definitely are.
So, if you're a person who has thought about how weird it is the cast from the popular franchise is aging, you aren't alone. In fact, at the time, the Watch What Happens Live host confirmed the actor was not wrong in his assessment and noted, “It's weird for all of us." The actor then went on to confirm that all of the milestones the Harry Potter stars have hit since going from child to adult actors have also been weird.
I remember when I turned 30, a lot of people in my life were really depressed to find that that had happened.
Still, there is nothing permanent in life except change, and a new baby will likely be a big one for Darke and Radcliffe. They are not the first nor will they likely be the last to go on this parenting journey, either.
The list of Harry Potter stars with kids now is fairly long and clearly still growing. There’s Grint, of course, but also Devon Murray (Seamus Finnegan) had a child back in 2021. Jessie Cave (Lavender Brown) has four children (one of whom had a tough bout with Covid during the pandemic) with her partner Alfie Brown. Scarlett Hefner (Pansy Parkinson) and Afshan Azad (Padma Patil) also have a kid. Our congrats go out to the couple more than 10 years into their relationship.
