Jason Bateman has been slammed for interrogating Charli xcx on her decision to not have children and for his failure to learn much about the pop star before interviewing her on his “Smartless” podcast.
During Charli’s appearance on Monday’s episode, with Bateman and co-hosts Sean Hayes and Will Arnett, the conversation turned to having children, after the British singer opened up about growing up an only child and not learning to deal with conflict as well as friends with siblings.
That’s when Bateman, 57, asked: “Does that mean you’d love to have more than one kid, or would you like to have a child who had the same sort of experience as you (as an only child)?”
In response, Charli, 33, said: “I actually don’t really want to have kids.”
Her declaration led to a stunned response from Bateman and from Hayes. The “Arrested Development” star said, “No, none?” Hayes, who is child-free himself, also asked, “Wait? Why?” before he conceded, “It’s not really any of my business.”
Instead of dropping the subject, Bateman, the father of two daughters, 19 and 13, pressed the “360” singer on her choice, explaining that his wife did not want to have children when they met, yet later changed her mind.
Acknowledging the possibility, Charli said, “I love the fantasy of having a child, like naming it sounds so fun, but 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 and like, maybe I’m not ready, you know?”
Again, Bateman would not let the subject go. He told the singer, “All that could change,” especially if she found the right partner. “So you might find somebody,” Bateman said.
In response, Charli calmly said, “Well, I’m married, so.”
Indeed, Charli is married to George Daniel, who is the drummer of the band The 1975. They hosted two lavish weddings last year: One in London, and another in Sicily, Italy.
Bateman tried to laugh off his mistake by saying, “I got to read a newspaper one of these days.” To that, Charli joked: “No. It’s OK. I knew immediately where you were gonna go, I knew my response, I was really looking forward to it.”
Listeners jumped online to blast Bateman for being rude and feeling it was OK to grill a woman on her family planning choices. “People with kids are so weird about people who don’t want to have kids,” one person said on the Fauxmois Subreddit.
“Why the (expletive) does society continue to pressure women, in particular, about having kids?!?” another person said. “Yep. I really hate when men act so incredulous at the thought of women not wanting kids,” said a third person.
“Jason Bateman being gross about women? What a shocker,” said yet another.
A number of people also were astounded that Bateman knew so little about the singer, including the fact that she was married or that her sixth album, “Brat,” became a cultural phenomenon in 2024 with “Brat Summer.” The so-called brat lifestyle also became a national political talking point, as branding for Kamala Harris’ effort to court the youth vote during her presidential campaign.
“Do these hosts not research … the people who are coming to their podcasts???” one person said. “The name of this podcast is so apt.”
Hayes clearly knew about Charli’s success, with the “Will and Grace” star gushing about some of the hit songs from “Brat.” At one point, he turned to Bateman and asked, “Do you remember, Kamala is brat?”
Bateman sounded clueless and admitted, “That started with you? I’m so old.”
On Reddit, one person said. “This is one of my problems with the ‘Smartless’ podcast. They do some great interviews and then they do some where it’s clear they really don’t know the person and barely did research.” But this person and others also acknowledged the premise of the podcast, which is that one of the hosts brings on a mystery guest for the three to interview. That means the other hosts would not have the opportunity to do any homework.
“So if (Charli is) Sean Hayes’ guest, Jason and Will don’t know about it until the podcast starts,” another commenter said. “They’ve done it that way since the beginning. But it can lead to very awkward moments like this lol.”
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