During an interview on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Kit Harington announced that he and wife Rose Leslie are expecting their second child together. Though they’ve already had a practice run, Harington said he is “terrified” of the upcoming addition to the family. Particularly because it will be a shock to their toddler.
“He is about the get the shock of his life, which is that he’s about to get a brother or sister,” the Game of Thrones actor explained. “You know with the first baby, you’re like, walking on clouds and dancing through fields and daisies for nine months? Well, the man is anyway. This time, the reality check comes much shorter and you get practical, like, real quick.”
Harrington and Leslie have been trying to prepare him and explain the concept of a sibling but he “doesn’t quite conceptually understand it just yet.”
He continued, “We are trying to get him ready for it and we point at Rose’s belly and we say, ‘Mummy’s baby, mummy’s baby,’ and he points at his tummy and goes, ‘My baby, my baby.’”
The couple’s first child was born in late 2020, though they never confirmed when the baby arrived, and they were married in 2018. However, they started dating in 2011 after meeting on set while filming their hit HBO show. In Game of Thrones, Leslie and Harington played characters sharing a passionate love affair, and that chemistry clearly brought them together.
Harington has talked about being a parent before, telling The Weekend Australian that being a parent “the most physically draining thing” he’s ever done.
“Like, honestly, my back is wrecked. I go to the gym quite a bit, but there’s something about having a child that is the most physically draining thing,” he said.
“I don’t know how you do it,” he continued, referring to single parents. “Because it’s more exhausting than everything I did on Thrones.”
But it’s not all bad.
“I have a child and my relationship is brilliant… I’m a very, very happy, content, sober man,” Harington concluded.
Aimée Lutkin is the weekend editor at ELLE.com. Her writing has appeared in Jezebel, Glamour, Marie Claire and more. Her first book, The Lonely Hunter, will be released by Dial Press in February 2022.