If you want to feel old, here’s a reminder that Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe is 36 and father to a toddler right now. Now I’m both cracking up and making “aww” noises over what it’s like for the actor to raise his son in America with his partner Erin Darke.
Radcliffe reportedly became a father in April 2023, which makes his son nearly three years old already. Since Radcliffe has been spending most of his time living in New York City lately, he was recently asked if he’d consider his first born to be American. His response:
I’m absolutely rearing an American child. He has a little accent… [it’s] bizarre. Right now, he’s really split down the middle between English and American, and I don’t think of him as having an accent, and then I hear him next to an American kid, and I’m like ‘Oh no, you’ve got a weird little voice. You talk in a very specific way.’
It was during a new interview with Today that Radcliffe got honest about what’s going on with his son’s accent, since his parents have different accents (Radcliffe’s partner, Darke, was born in Michigan, and a longtime New Yorker). Currently, the toddler’s accent is a mix of American and English, and he called it rather “bizarre.” As he added:
But, it’s really cute. And eventually, he will be fully American, but he says ‘trousers’ now still, so there’s a few British-isms that are getting in there.
Daniel Radcliffe has previously called parenting the “best thing that’s ever happened,” while also getting really candid about how “intimidating” it can be to have a human being in the world he cares so much about at times as well. Him and Darke were seen early on taking their son to a SAG-AFTRA protest during the actor strikes.
Daniel Radcliffe has also talked about how being on Broadway while having a baby is actually ideal because he can spend more time with him when “he’s awake and alert.” Radcliffe is currently doing a Broadway show called Every Brilliant Thing, which officially opens on March 12, and will run through May 24. The one-man-show includes audience participation and follows an unnamed protagonist trying to name “every brilliant thing” as the title suggests.
At the same time, Radcliffe is also in a new NBC comedy called The Fall And Rise Of Reggie Dinkins, which has been called “catnip for 30 Rock fans” and has earned a 100% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. The series also starring SNL alums Tracy Morgan and Bobby Moynihan is about a disgraced football star (Morgan) who hires a filmmaker (Radcliffe) to make a favorable documentary about him.
Three episodes are currently available to stream on Peacock. New episodes air Mondays on NBC, and the next day on the streaming service. Whilst fatherhood had Radcliffe saying he’d be “a little more selective” after his son’s birth, it’s great to see the actor thriving on stage, screen as well as raising his son with Erin Darke.
