In the latest edition of News That Sounds Completely Made Up but Isn’t, Kelsey Grammer—yes, the Frasier Crane, still solving problems with sherry and Shakespearean quotes—is preparing to welcome his eighth child at the age of 70. That’s not a typo. Seventy. The man is still memorising scripts and building cribs.
The veteran actor was recently spotted in London alongside wife Kayte Walsh, 46, whose conspicuously visible baby bump did all the talking before People magazine made it official. The outlet published exclusive photos of the couple on a stroll through the capital, with Walsh—film producer, mother of three, and now evidently a human miracle—looking very much in the third trimester zone of operations.
Grammer and Walsh married in 2011 and have three children together: Faith, 12; Gabriel, 10; and Auden, 8. And while that might sound like a full family lineup, it only brings us to halftime.
Kelsey’s parental portfolio spans four marriages and several decades. His eldest, Spencer, 41, is the daughter of first wife Doreen Alderman and, naturally, an actor. Greer, 33, arrived via a relationship with Barrie Buckner, and also found her way to the stage. His third marriage—to Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Camille Donatacci—produced Mason (born 2001) and Jude (2004).
In a remarkably candid interview with People, Grammer admitted what many only realise after the therapy bills roll in: he wasn’t the most present father early on. “I have neglected a couple of the kids in my life, especially the first two,” he confessed. “I’m trying to make up for a little of it now.” There’s no pretence here. No well-rehearsed, PR-vetted dodge. Just a father, now older and apparently wiser, owning up to the failings of his younger self.
“I should have been a little more clear and maybe less tolerant with the older ones,” he said, noting that his approach with the younger brood is more structured. “I’m a little more specific with them about doing their studies and being prepared.”
And in perhaps the most Grammer-esque line of all, he distilled his parenting philosophy into something that wouldn’t be out of place in a Broadway monologue: “What’s your job in life? Showing up.”
That, apparently, goes for both homework and childbirth. Eight times and counting.
