William Morgan
Actor Jason Bateman has been blasted as 'gross' after grilling 'Apple' singer Charli XCX about whether she wanted to have children in an interview on his celebrity podcast SmartLess.
The 33-year-old British singer was appearing on the podcast, which also features fellow actors Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, to promote her soundtrack for Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights, as well as a new mockumentary following her Brat world tour.
Bateman, 57, appeared to know very little about the Grammy-winning artist or her 2024 album, which broke out of the world of pop music after Charli declared to America that the Democrat candidate for president, Kamala Harris, was in fact 'brat'.
But this cultural moment seems to have passed the middle-aged hosts by, who couldn't name her latest album and didn't know Charli had married The 1975's drummer George Daniel last year.
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So Bateman almost immediately put his foot in it when he asked how many children she wanted to have.
Charli XCX, real name Charlotte Aitchison, has spoken at length about her feelings on the topic.
That includes on Brat, where the song 'I think about it all the time' sees the artist explore social expectations and her personal feelings about having children.
Charli responded to the intrusive question: "I actually don't really want to have kids."
The Arrested Development star went on to explain that his wife Amanda Anka had not initially wanted kids, but ended up having Francesca Nora Bateman in 2009 and Maple Sylvie Bateman in 2012.
Then he put his foot in it again, telling the artist that she 'might find somebody' and change her mind.
"I'm married," Charli replied simply to the podcast host, who clearly did not know anything about her.
Trying to recover from the embarrassment, Bateman admitted that he needed to 'pick up a newspaper', but many listening to the SmartLess were less than amused by his needling of the 33-year-old over her life choices.
One X user called the question 'disgusting' and slammed the sexist undertones behind the question, saying: "If a woman says she doesn’t wanna have kids, THEN THAT'S THE END OF THE STORY.
"Saying 'maybe you’ll change your mind when you get married…' is GROSS."
Others found their lack of prior knowledge about the artist, whose Brat album sold over one million units in the US, to be infuriating. One said: "This just p*ssed me off... pressuring her without even knowing s**t about her."
But some regular listeners to the podcast pointed out that this ignorance is part of the Gen X hosts' shtick on the show, where each of the presenters bring on a mystery guest that their old and male co-hosts are unlikely to know.
One listener pointed out: "It’s called SmartLess for a reason. Only one of them knows the guest that’s coming that day. It’s a comedy podcast. It’s not that serious."
LADbible Group has contacted representatives of Bateman for comment.