Hugh Grant slams the ‘pathetic’ rules at his kids’ ‘posh’ private schools, reveals ‘final straw’

Hugh Grant is not pleased with the amount of screen time his kids are getting at school.

The actor — who is a father of five — confessed during a recent public appearance that he’s “another angry parent fighting the eternal, exhausting and depressive battle with children who only want to be on a screen.”

At a campaigning event held this week by Close Screens Open Minds at London’s Knightsbridge School, Grant slammed the “kind of ridiculous posh private schools” his kids attend for limiting outdoor time.

“They’re the ones saying they’re not going to play outside today because it’s raining, or they can’t go on the climbing frame because it’s windy,” he argued, per The Telegraph. “It’s pathetic. It seems to me that there is space here for a hero school, a set of schools, to break the mold.”

The “Wonka” actor also shared his tipping point.

“The final straw was when the school started saying, with some smugness, ‘We give every child a Chromebook, and they do a lot of lessons on their Chromebook, and they do all their homework on their Chromebook,’ and you just thought, ‘That is the last f–king thing they need,’ and the last thing we need.”

At the event, Grant joined US author and social psychologist Dr. Jonathan Haidt and King Charles III’s second cousin Sophie Winkleman in pushing back against smartphone use for students under 14.

In campaigning for screen-free schools, Dr. Haidt argued that social media should be banned for students under 16 amid what he called an “epidemic of mental illness” in youth compounded by “attention fragmentation.”

Technology should play a role in education, he added, but “not on children’s desks.”

Grant, 64, shares three children with wife Anna Eberstein: John Mungo, 12, Lulu, 9, and Blue, 7. He also shares Tabitha, 13, and Felix, 11, from his previous relationship with Tinglan Hong.

Additionally, he’s the godfather of ex-girlfriend Elizabeth Hurley’s 23-year-old son, Damian.

The “Glass Onion” actor further argued at the event, per The Telegraph, that more parents need to join the cause and speak out about screens in schools.

“I think that once you get a critical mass of parents who are outraged by EdTech, as well as all the other issues, the phones, etc., that is when politicians listen because they’re scared of that,” he said.

“That’s also when schools start to listen because they’re scared of people leaving their schools and losing business,” he added.

Grant generally keeps his life as a father out of the spotlight. However, back in November, the “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” actor joked about ways to escape his “noisy” children.

“I do a lot of hiding in the loo,” he joked while appearing on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” as a guest. “I do a lot of sleeping in there now.”

In 2023, he also said he’s “too old” for the responsibility of so many little ones. “I have no fun at all,” he told People at the time. “I’m swamped in children.”