Chris Pratt Shares How Backlash Over Remarks About His 'Healthy Daughter' Affected Him

The “Jurassic World: Dominion” actor told Men’s Health that he fears how his 9-year-old son, Jack, will eventually react to the online furor.
Katherine Schwarzenegger (left) and Chris Pratt.
Katherine Schwarzenegger (left) and Chris Pratt.
Jeff Kravitz via Getty Images

Chris Pratt is opening up about the backlash he experienced last year after he paid tribute to his wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt, on social media.

The “Jurassic World: Dominion” actor came under fire in November after sharing a photo of the couple, who married in 2019, on Instagram. “She’s given me an amazing life, a gorgeous healthy daughter, she chews so loudly that sometimes I put in my ear buds to drown it out,” he wrote in part. “But that’s love!”

Some interpreted Pratt’s reference to his “gorgeous healthy daughter” as a dig at his ex-wife, Anna Faris. Pratt and Faris share a son, Jack, who was born two months premature and later experienced muscle and vision issues as the result of cerebral hemorrhage.

In an interview with Men’s Health published Tuesday, Pratt recalled his emotional response in the wake of the online furor.

“I said something like, ‘Find someone who looks at you the way my wife looks at me.’ And then I gave her some shit in the thing and said, ‘But I love you. I’m so thankful for my wife—she gave me a beautiful, healthy daughter,’” he said. “And then a bunch of articles came out and said, ‘That’s so cringeworthy. I can’t believe Chris Pratt would thank her for a healthy daughter when his first child was born premature. That’s such a dig at his ex-wife.’”

“And I’m like, That is fucked up. My son’s gonna read that one day,” he continued. “It really fucking bothered me, dude. I cried about it. I was like, I hate that these blessings in my life are—to the people close to me—a real burden.”

Pratt and his son, Jack, in 2017.
Pratt and his son, Jack, in 2017.
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin via Getty Images

Pratt later joked that his publicist would be “sweating” over his remarks, given that the interview was the first time he’s commented publicly on the controversy.

Faris and Pratt split in 2017 after eight years of marriage. That same year, Faris addressed Jack’s health issues in her memoir, “Unqualified.”

“The pediatric neurosurgeon sat Chris and me down to tell us that Jack had some severe brain bleeding,” she wrote at the time. “And there was a chance that he could be developmentally disabled. I was in complete shock.”

Jack’s health improved over time, but he continued to have slight vision and leg muscle issues years later. “Given that those are the biggest challenges, we count ourselves as extremely lucky,” Faris explained.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight last week, Pratt said Jack, 9, “does a great job as a big brother” to sisters Layla, 1, and 1-month-old Eloise, noting, “They love him so much and they miss him when he’s gone.”

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