Jason Bateman, 57, is in hot water after comments he made to 33-year-old married pop star Charli XCX on the Smartless podcast.
Bateman asked the British singer, whose real name is Charlotte Aitchison, whether she wanted to “have more than one kid.” Charli XCX, an only child, been candid about not wanting to have kids in the past.
“I actually don’t really want to have kids,” she said. “I love the fantasy of having a child—like naming it sounds so fun. But I’m like, that is exactly a sign to me as to why I should not have one. The fact that that feels like the coolest part about it, I’m like, maybe I’m not ready,” she explained.
Bateman unfortunately replied, “All that could change,” if she “meets the right guy.”
“My wife did not want to have kids,” Bateman continued. “Once we started going out, she was like, ‘OK, I think I can have a kid with this guy.’ So you might find somebody.”
“Well, I’m married, so...” Charli XCX told him, as awkwardness ensued.
The pop star married The 1975 band drummer George Daniel last year. Bateman has been married to Amanda Anka since 2001. They share two daughters, Francesca Nora Bateman, 19, and Maple Sylvie Bateman, 13.
“Oh. I gotta read a newspaper one of these days,” Bateman joked after a few seconds. “Maybe your next husband, you’re going to want kids,” he continued, quipping, “Let me finish, Charli.”
Charli XCX rose to fame in the early 2010s with features on multiple hit songs “I Love It” and “Fancy,” and reached new heights by 2024 with her album brat. That project became such a massive cultural moment that Donald Trump’s Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, tried to use it to reach young voters.
The three-time Grammy winner shared her anxiety about whether to become a mom with Rolling Stone that year.
“Am I less of a woman if I don’t have a kid? Will I feel like I’ve missed out on my purpose in life?” she asked rhetorically then. “I know we’re not supposed to say that, but it’s this biological and social programming.” Her song, “I Think About It All the Time,” also explored her complicated feelings about potential motherhood.
Just before the cringe exchange on the podcast, Charli XCX opened up to Bateman and co-hosts Sean Hayes and Will Arnett about how her experience as an only child shaped her as an adult. “I actually think not having siblings actually means that you miss out on a lot of conflict,” she explained.
“And I mean that in like, actually a bad way. Like, I think my friends who have siblings are so much better at conflict, as in they don’t kind of amplify it up into this huge, dramatic thing. It’s just, they’re able to move through it a lot more quickly than I am.”
“As an only child, you’re sort of protected, and you’re coddled, and you’re, it’s all about you,” Bateman replied.
The Ozark star has one sibling—older sister and MAGA enthusiast, Justine Bateman—with whom he previously said he rarely speaks.
Justine Bateman has denied that her estrangement from her liberal brother is due to their differing “political ideologies.”
