Barry Keoghan is proving that even A-list actors have their weaknesses. The limelight doesn’t make you immune to your personal kryptonite — especially if you’re a parent. On an episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the Academy Award nominee gave a rare update about his 2-year-old son Brando, who he shares with ex Alyson Sandro.
All the little guy has to do to melt his dad’s heart — and get his way — is make that face.
“The puppy eyes, man,” Keoghan said, “They look at you and you’re like, ‘Okay. Here’s chocolate. I’ll eat it with you.’” It’s the most endearing and powerful look that so many parents — Ludacris included! — know all too well. And toddler puppy eyes?! Keoghan doesn’t stand a chance.
According to the Saltburn star, a sweet tooth isn’t Brando’s notable interest. The movie Cars is apparently “his thing” and the little guy is starting to get a little cheeky. “He’s started to talk now,” Keoghan said. “He can back chat!”
Potential freshness aside, the actor couldn’t help but gush about his little chocolate-and-Cars-loving cutie. “I have a lovely relationship with my little boy,” he said. “I’m getting to see him grow, and it gives me such love and hope.”
The updates about Brando were certainly unexpected, as Keoghan has been less and less public about his little one.
“People love to use my son as ammunition or whatever, and it kind of leads me to stop [posting him on social media],” the actor said on The Louis Theroux Podcast earlier this month. “The more attention I’ve gotten lately and the more in the public I’ve become, the less I’ve posted about my child, because I don’t think it’s fair to put my child online.”
“Because I reigned that in, people draw a narrative and go, ‘Absent father, sh*t, deadbeat dad,’ and more disgusting things I wouldn’t even repeat,” he continued. “Just the audacity of some people, man, it sickens me. It makes me furious.”
Keoghan insists the narrative isn’t true. He, like many celebrity parents, is simply trying to keep his child out of a spotlight they never asked to be in.
“I’m not an absent father,” he insisted. He’s a loving father who falls prey to puppy eyes.
Before you go, check out these celebrities who fight to keep paparazzi away from their families.
