David Foster has opened up about being a father at the age of 73, and why he thinks his age can benefit his and wife Katharine McPhee‘s one-year-old son, Rennie.
The musician discussed his six children during a recent interview with People. Along with Rennie, Foster has five adult daughters, Allison, 52, Amy, 49, Sara, 41, Erin, 40, and Jordan, 36, from his previous relationships.
“I had all daughters until my son and I love all my daughters immeasurably, but having a son is a little bit different,” he told the publication.
He further explained how raising a child “at this point of [his] life” is “different,” with Foster noting that time is now a “little more precious”.
“Not better or worse, just different. I still work, I’m still gone a lot, but maybe the time is a little more precious to me because I got more runway behind me than I have ahead of me now,” he explained.
However, despite his busy lifestyle, Foster also revealed that “patience” is the key to raising a toddler at his age.
“I was not patient when I was young,” he said while reflecting on raising his five daughters. “I was arrogant and just on the move.”
“The Best of Me” singer then acknowledged that, while he won’t be there for Rennie’s adult years, he still feels like he has something valuable to “offer” his son.
“I think that I can offer one thing to Rennie even though I won’t be around when he’s 50 or 40 even, or 30 maybe,” explained Foster. “I think I can offer him wisdom from my 72 years on the planet. And maybe that’s not a bad trade-off. I hope so.”
During an interview withPeople in October, he also confessed that, even though he wasn’t expecting to be a father again while in his 70s, he has “loved every single day” of it.
“It’s the standard thing of like: ‘Oh, well you were so young when you had your children and you were working day and night, you never saw them.’ And there is some truth to that, sadly, for my [older] kids,” the composer explained. “I was just working a lot. Even though I’m working a lot now, I’ll cancel anything just to hang with him. It’s just different.”
Foster and McPhee, 36, who got married in 2019, announced the birth of their son in February 2021.
Rennie’s birth also came months after Foster addressed some of the widespread criticism he and his wife have received over their 35-year-old age gap. Speaking to USAToday in July 2020, Foster said that he wouldn’t let the age difference or online critics “bring [them] down”.
“Look, we have haters on social media, and there’s not a person around that’s not going to make some comment about the age difference,” he said. “But there are so many things that can bring a marriage down: It can be financial, it can be children, it can be geography, it can be infidelity.”
“And one of them is age difference, but that’s our only problem,” he continued. “Everything else is in line, so it’s not going to bring us down.”
