Vera Anderson/WireImage(TURKEY) — Hugh Grant now has firsthand experience with the fear and frustration parents are feeling as the COVID-19 lockdown keeps their kids away from schools.
In an otherwise cheery interview last week, moderated by his former Song and Lyrics co-star Drew Barrymore, the pair began talking about the difficulties their kids are having with remote learning.
“It’s ghastly,” Grant admitted, before saying, “my son self-harmed himself in front of this tutor.”
The gravity of the comment apparently took Barrymore by surprise, judging by the look on her face.
“He stabbed himself…in the face with a [pen]” Grant says, mimicking repeatedly stabbing himself, “because he couldn’t do a basic bit of arithmetic.”
During the chat, part of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s “Conversations At Home” series, the 60-year-old Undoing star said he’d moved the family out of UK quarantines to be with him in Turkey where he’s shooting a film — and where he hired a pair of teenage tutors to work with his children.
Grant has three children with his wife since 2018, Anna Eberstein, as well as two with former partner, Tinglan Hong.
Unfortunately, Grant isn’t alone: The isolation and lack of social interaction has taken a toll on remotely-taught students’ mental health all over the globe, with the experts asserting the problem is only growing as lockdowns continue.
By Stephen Iervolino
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.