Jonah Hill explains why he left LA to raise his two children

Growing up as the son or daughter of a movie star in Los Angeles is not easy, with paparazzi and selfie-obsessed fans around every corner. So Jonah Hill has decided to raise his young family somewhere else.

The negative affects of going through childhood surrounded by fame and sycophants have long been documented, with everyone from Michael Jackson to the son of Tom Hanks citing it as the cause of their personal issues.

Chet Hanks called growing up in LA a 'double edged sword' that gave him amazing experiences, but also made him feel excluded because other people 'automatically assumed' that he would be a 'spoiled brat'.

Clearly this is something the Superbad star wants to avoid, with 42-year-old Hill explaining recently that he made the decision to move out of the country's second largest city three years ago, when his first child was born.

Jonah Hill gave a shout out to his wife Olivia Millar before explaining why he'd left LA (Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for SiriusXM)

The privacy-valuing Wolf of Wall Street actor, who quietly married wife Olivia Millar earlier this year and welcomed a second child without telling the Hollywood press, explained his reasoning this Saturday (April 25) on the SmartLess podcast.

Filmed in front of a live audience, Hill revealed that he had moved his young family elsewhere in California. But first he had to say hello to his new wife and longtime partner.

Sitting next to Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett, Hill said: “So real quick, before we go any further, my wife is here. My best friend. Shout-out to my beautiful wife, Liv. Where is she? Oh, what’s up, baby?”

The star of the new Apple TV comedy Outcome then explained his current living situation to the audience, saying: “So I live in a very small town in San Diego, and it’s amazing, and my neighbors are incredible people. And when we had our first kid, we moved out there three years ago.”

Jonah Hill went from sneaking into movie theatres to starring in some of the biggest movies of the past 20 years (Virginia Sherwood/NBC NewsWire)

He added: “I wanted to leave L.A. and raise a family outside of Los Angeles.”

Hill shared one of the main benefits of leaving celebrity culture behind, saying of his neighbors: “They never treat me weird or ask me about my job or anything. And my neighbor is one of my great friends, Dr. Sean, he never asked. He’s here tonight. He never bothered me or was like, ‘Oh, what’s this person like?’”

He then reflected on why it had been important to move his family out of celeb-obsessed LA, saying: "I grew up here. LA was such a cool place to grow up in the ’90s because you could go skateboard downtown or you could sneak into a movie premiere or you could go sneak into a comedy club and see Chris Rock or something."

Looking back on an enjoyable childhood in the city, Hill added: "You had access to show business stuff, but you had access to punk and skating and graffiti and all the naughty stuff. And there was no internet. It was just so awesome."