If Hugh Grant was a woman he'd be branded a 'feckless slut'
Revelation that 53yr-old actor has had three kids with two women in 15-month period, angers tabloids
THE revelation that Hugh Grant went from being a childless bachelor to a father of three (while remaining a bachelor) in just 15 months, has sent the tabloids into a frenzy.
The latest addition to the 53-year-old actor's brood is a boy, whose mother is Swedish TV executive Anna Eberstein. He was born in September, 2012 - just three months before the mother of Grant's first child, Tinglan Hong, gave birth to Felix, their second baby.
Writing in the Daily Mirror, Alison Phillips says the 53-year-old actor has "taken to collecting love children the way young boys collect football cards". The only difference, writes Phillips, is that boys pursue their hobby with more "commitment" and "maturity".
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The fact that Grant "appears" not to be living with either Eberstein or Hong infuriates Phillips. If a woman was "knocking out children in such circumstances" she would be roundly attacked as being a "feckless slut – and worse", she writes.
Adds Phillips: "This isn't three weddings and a funeral, more like three kids and no wedding."
The Sun's Jane Moore is a little more sympathetic towards Grant, but only a little. The actor has described the birth of his children as "life changing", Moore says, yet "not so life-changing that he has given up his bachelor status in favour of domestic bliss (or drudgery, depending on your outlook) with either of his baby-mothers".
"No. Hugh's life, it seems, is still just as fast-paced as it was before the births of Tabitha, two, Felix, one, and his unnamed 16-month old son with Anna."
Dismissing Grant as a "man-boy", Moore says he has created for himself the best of both worlds - "the freedom of being a single man combined with a family life he can drop in to when it suits him".
Grant is certainly witty and charismatic, admits the Daily Mail's Sarah Vine. It should come as no surprise that no surprise "to find that London is littered with his offspring".
But the fact that the actor was sleeping with "at least one other woman" – ie Eberstein - when Felix was conceived, underlines his "reluctance to be a father in any traditional sense of the word," Vine writes.
She adds: "He [Grant] clearly has little or no respect for the women involved. Even by modern standards, getting two women knocked up simultaneously is appalling behaviour."
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The history of Donald Trump's election conspiracy theories
The Explainer How the 2024 Republican nominee has consistently stoked baseless fears of a stolen election
By David Faris Published
-
Two ancient cities have been discovered along the Silk Road
Under the radar The discovery changed what was known about the old trade route
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
'People shouldn't have to share the road with impaired drivers'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published