Hugh Grant has opened up about his disastrous misadventures in the kitchen – including the time he managed to give his whole family worms.
The actor, 64, is one of Britain’s biggest stars, having held iconic roles in movies including Love Actually, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and Notting Hill among many others.
And while he may have been blessed with incredible acting talents, his skills apparently don’t extend to the kitchen, as he revealed he is pretty terrible when it comes to cooking.
Hugh sat down with his Bridget Jones co-star Renee Zellweger for a recent interview with Vogue, where he revealed just how much his family has suffered thanks to his efforts in the kitchen.
He told Renee that he’d recently “started cooking for the first time” at the ripe age of 64, but it’s not been going too well.
He explained: “I can’t stop barbecuing. Can’t stop buying barbecue equipment. And now that it’s winter, I’ve moved indoors and I can’t stop buying Le Creuset.”
Renee remarked that the expensive cookware is “beautiful stuff, isn’t it?”, before Hugh revealed the most disastrous results of his culinary adventures.
He admitted: “I’ve poisoned my family twice, given them worms.”
When asked how he’d managed that, Hugh explained: “Undercooked chicken. Twice. It was dark, you see.
“It was on the barbecue and I stuck my Heston Blumenthal prod into it. I couldn’t quite read it.
“So I served it out – worms all round. And the children now beg me not to cook.”
When Renee then quizzed: “How did you not know?”, Hugh quickly moved the topic on.
While he may come across as curmudgeonly in interviews, one thing that brings Hugh a lot of joy is his children.
The Heretic star is father to five children – son John Mungo, 12, and daughters Lulu, eight, and Blue, six, with wife Anna Eberstein, as well as daughter Tabitha Xiao Xi, 13, and son Felix Chang Hong, 11, from his previous relationship with Tinglan Hong.
During a recent appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Hugh was asked if he was a “jungle gym dad”, to which he responded: “Oh I love a bit of that.
“I mean there’s a lot to dread because I’m old and it’s noisy and it’s unbearable and I do a lot of hiding in the loo.”
He added: “I mean, I’m going home tonight and, let’s face it, the bit where they jump in your arms – my six-year-old calls it her ‘chimpanzee hug’. I quite like that.”
Hugh then joked: “I’ve made myself cry.”
He previously revealed how much he missed his children while working on The Undoing in the US, telling People in 2018: “I thought, ‘Oh, fantastic opportunity to get away from my screaming children.’
“As soon as I got to New York each time … I missed them so much. It was awful. I remember almost every scene I acted in made me cry.”
He also shared a sweet anecdote about how he entertains his kids, revealing: “I think it’s always amusing to put your underpants on your head,” revealing that his daughter had taken to doing the same with her diapers.
Hugh then admitted: “I made the mistake of showing one of my sons my a** all the time. ‘Hey, look at this!’
“Then he got the habit and taught every single child in west London to do the same.”
Here’s hoping they only take after him when it comes to pranks and not cooking…
