Russell Brand has never spent a full 24 hours with his children.
The actor, who recently touched on his parenting style in an interview with The Sunday Times Magazine, admitted he had only spent “a night” with his daughters Mabel and Peggy.
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The 43-year-old comedian continued his wife also packed all of the baby bags and snacks for their children.
“It turns out that she is extremely well versed int he nuances and complexities of child-rearing. Me, I am dedicated to it, devoted to it, but I am still surprised when it’s like ‘Oh my God, this is f*****g really hard and it’s so exhausting.’ The younger one [who is six months], I just feel inept so quickly like with the crying.”
He said his wife was able to “sustain and maintain domesticity in a way that’s astonishing,” something he doesn’t have experience with. “I do whatever I’m told,” he said.
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But Brand added he didn’t want the interview to conclude he was a lazy parent.
“I would hate for you to leave with the impression that I’m sort of a sat watching television, peering over the armchair at what’s going on,” he continued. “Yesterday, like, I drove Mabel to the playschool and I drop her at the playschool. But I’m sensitive and awake and aware, so I have to dial a lot of s**t down to go through life normal.”
Social media users react
On Twitter, not many were impressed by Brand’s interview or how he talked about his wife. Some on Twitter called him “sexist.”
Guardian reporter Hadley Freeman said the actor’s responses were very “Russell Brand.”
“Russell Brand pitching himself as some New Age, all new, mature and sensitive dad – and then saying he’s too sensitive to do any actual parenting is the most Russell Brand thing I’ve ever read in my life.”
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https://twitter.com/HadleyFreeman/status/1086908146302488577
Other’s agreed with Freeman’s response.
https://twitter.com/MissEllieMae/status/1086994029252878336
But some argued he was only praising his wife.
https://twitter.com/PipingWidow/status/1087284911545950210
READ MORE: Lawnmower parents are the new helicopter parents — and experts believe they are ‘detrimental’
https://twitter.com/SammiePressdee/status/1087300629737938945
In 2014, Brand was also called out for his views on sexism and even feminism.
Brand claimed this then girlfriend Jemina Khan changed him from a sexist to a feminist, the Telegraph reported after he joined the No More Page 3 campaign (a campaign in the U.K. that aimed to stop The Sun newspaper from printing pictures of topless models on Page 3).
He posted a photo of himself in a campaign shirt with the caption, “Love of a good woman.”
Some, like scientist and writer Dr. Brooke Magnanti didn’t buy his sudden jump into feminism.
“The world loves a lover, and Brand’s enthusiasm for his relationship with Jemima Khan is sweet. ‘Love of a good woman,’ though? Really? What on earth does that mean? That all the other women — of which, by his own admission, there have been a good many, including ex-wife Katy Perry — were insufficiently good enough to convince Brand that sexism wasn’t on?,” she wrote.
“I’m not buying it. Neither the ‘good woman’ trope nor the idea that women’s behaviour and attention is specifically responsible for men’s sexism. That is actually pretty sexist, you know?”
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