When Hugh Grant decided to become a father, he really went all out, welcoming five children with two different women within the space of about seven years. Tinglan Hong gave birth to a boy and girl (Tabitha and Felix) and Hugh has one son and two daughters with his current wife/partner, Anna Eberstein. Anna is Swedish, although I do not know if she’s still a Swedish foreign national or if she has received British citizenship or some kind of residency. I guess my point is that if Hugh, Anna and their kids are all traveling together, it’s possible that Anna might be traveling under a Swedish or EU passport. In any case, Hugh blasted an unnamed immigration officer for asking some “invasive” questions:
Hugh Grant was left unimpressed by his latest airport experience. On Friday, April 4, the actor, 64, called out an immigration officer at London’s Heathrow Airport for allegedly acting “intrusive, insulting and creepy” during an encounter with his children.
Writing in a post on X, Grant claimed that immigration officers at the London airport asked his kids if he and his wife Anna Eberstein were their parents.
“Just came through Heathrow with wife and children,” Grant’s post read. “We all have the same last name (Grant) on our passports. Immigration officer engages my children in chit chat then whispers to them ‘Are these your Mum and Dad?’ . Intrusive, insulting and creepy.”
While Grant shares daughter Tabitha Xiao, 13, son Felix Chang, 11, with actress Tinglan Hong, he is also dad to son John Mungo, 12, and daughters Lulu Danger, 9, and Blue, 6, with Eberstein, 46.
A spokesperson for Heathrow Airport confirmed to PEOPLE that Border Force officers are employed by the Home Office and not the airport. PEOPLE has contacted the Home Office for comment.
“If you are travelling with a child (under 18) and are not the child’s parent, or may appear not to be the parent (for example, if you have a different family name), we may ask you a few questions to establish your relationship with the child,” a Border Force article on the U.K. government’s website reads. “We will always do this as quickly as possible and in a way which is sensitive to the interests of the child and the adult involved.”
My opinion: it can be both “creepy” and “a guy trying to do his job.” Like, I totally understand why Hugh was unsettled by an immigration officer speaking to his children in that way. But also… child trafficking exists, even if the passports and documents look above-board. Hugh doesn’t say that the kids were pulled into a security office and separated from him – this was just a double-check question by an immigration officer. Also: do you think the guy asked because Hugh is so old? He’s a 64 year old man (who looks his age, honestly) traveling with a twenty-years-younger woman and three young children. I’m just saying, I understand why the guy asked the question.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- Anna Elisabet Eberstein and Hugh Grant photographed arriving at the World Premiere of Wonka held at Royal Festival Hall in London, UK on 28 November 2023.,Image: 825041754, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Julie Edwards / Avalon
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- Hugh Grant mit Ehefrau Anna Eberstein bei der Premiere des Kinofilms Wonka im Regency Village Theatre. Los Angeles, 10.12.2023 *** Hugh Grant with wife Anna Eberstein at the premiere of the movie Wonka at the Regency Village Theatre Los Angeles, 10 12 2023 Foto:xD.xBedrosianx/xFuturexImagex wonka_3349,Image: 828658213, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Dave Bedrosian / Avalon
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- Hugh Grant and Anna Elisabet Eberstein attends the 2024 EE BAFTA Film Awards at the Royal Festival Hall in London, England. UK. Sunday 18th February 2024 -,Image: 848238527, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: 2024 EE BAFTA Film Awards, Credit line: James Warren / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
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- Wimbledon Feature, Schauspieler Hugh Grant und Anna Eberstein in der Royal Box Tennis – Wimbledon 2024 – Grand Slam ITF / ATP, Tennis Herren / WTA, Tennis Damen – AELTC – London – – Great Britain – 12 July 2024. *** Wimbledon Feature, actor Hugh Grant and Anna Eberstein in the Royal Box Tennis Wimbledon 2024 Grand Slam ITF ATP WTA AELTC London Great Britain 12 July 2024 Copyright: xJuergenxHasenkopfx,Image: 889465747, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Juergen Hasenkopf / Avalon
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- Celebrities arrive for the world premiere of ‘Wonka’ at the Royal Festival Hall in London Featuring: Hugh Grant Where: London, United Kingdom When: 28 Nov 2023 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
I have had this question asked of my children when I crossed a border with them, and asked of me when I was a child crossing a border with my parents. It’s a pretty typical security question. I think the guards have to do spot checks automatically with every so many people who pass through, so maybe the Grant family’s number was just up (as I am assuming this is a family who probably travels frequently if they hadn’t experienced this previously).
Agreed to this, it’s quite common. And yet, we once had an agent pull out each of my daughter’s stuffed animals and squish and squeeze them for several minutes as she watched (silently crying). I get that they might think there was contraband, but there was also something bordering on sadistic about the amount of time he spent manhandling the stuffies.
In 1999, we were going through Heathrow the day the Northern Irish Cabinet was being seated for the first time and security was massive. A guard actually ripped the head off a Telltubby doll to the horror of the small child in front of us.
Similar experience at Heathrow. We’d flown a red-eye and the 5 year old was sound asleep on my husband’s shoulder. I handed the agent our passports. I have a different last name from Hubby & Kiddo, but that child looks like me (my father would mistake photos of Kiddo for pictures of me at the same age – the clothing and hairstyles were the only real differences). The agent stepped out to wake the child. Kiddo startled, cried “MOMMA!” and leaned out of their father’s arms towards me. Agent’s response “well, that answered all my questions.” He was checking to see if the child had been sedated and if they would identify us as their parents. Standard operating procedures. Rude, but understandable.
Yeah, this is much ado about nothing. Hugh was expecting celebrity treatment (and yeah as a celeb you can google who his children are) but immigration officials 100% need to be asking this and parents should be glad that the officials are trying to protect children.
My kids have never been asked this but they do get asked for their names all the time (which is standard I think) and I have to remind myself not to answer for them.
Obviously, we weren’t there to hear the exact conversation. To me it sounds like the guy was doing his job. God forbid, Hugh’s kid got into a kidnapping or trafficing situation and the officers would let them slip out of the country, Hugh would be rightfully mad that they are not doing their jobs.
I think the issue is which kids were asked that question. Grant has two mixed race children.
I can see being sensitive about that because it probably happens a lot for parents of mix-raced children, but in this day and age, all travel involving airports or international borders requires putting your ego aside. Security is exhausting and demoralizing. Sometimes you practically have to strip naked in front of strangers. Us plebs just have to roll with it.
Except it’s humiliating, degrading, and othering for mixed race kids to have their identity questioned. We don’t need to suck it up, security professionals need to be better trained to spot suspicious activity rather than rely on their personal biases.
He wasn’t traveling with his children from his first relationship, he was traveling with his wife and 3 non-mixed race children, all with the last name of Grant.
Megan – I would agree with you if this were specific to mix-raced children, but it isn’t. One can express sympathy for mixed race families without suggesting we be less vigilant about fighting trafficking. Just focusing on “suspicious behavior” isn’t realistic.
Following 9-11, I got searched *every time* I traveled with my husband. We’re both white, but he’s a bigger tattooed man, and the trigger was that I could be the patsy. So I tolerated it. And we laughed about it because what else can you do?
This is Britain, not the US (ICE!), so I am going to give UK immigration the benefit of the doubt. It sounds like the agent was doing his/her job and that Hugh did not get the fast-track special treatment he feels he deserves (and obviously expects).
It wouldn’t be the first time Hugh has been kind of an arse…
Honestly it’s kinda weird that he thinks this is notable? I grew up in a different country, so I’ve frequently flown internationally with my 8-year-old, and “who are you traveling with today?” / “who is this person to you?” are absolutely routine questions that have been posed to my kid by border control agents.
You can call that creepy and intrusive, or you can call it a border control agent doing the most basic due diligence to suss out whether a child is being abducted and spirited over international lines.
We were stationed twice in Europe (1999-2002, 2014-17) and did a ton of traveling with our three kids. We were frequently, not always, asked questions like these. Especially in the early 00s when coming back from former eastern bloc countries. There was still a lot of prostitution and trafficking going on there after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
If I had to guess, it might have been his kids with Tinglan Hong. Tinglan is Chinese and so Hugh has two kids who are biracial. Some random immigration officer wouldn’t necessarily know this, especially if they’re young. You can read all kinds of stories on social media about parents traveling with biracial kids or parents who simply do not look like their kids because they are darker or lighter than their offspring and the uncomfortable stories they’ve endured in airports and other places. This is definitely profiling and it’s not helpful. So many parents and kids look nothing like each other due to family genetics—physical appearance is never a good way to determine if child trafficking is occurring.
Hugh probably doesn’t really get it, especially if he doesn’t travel often with his other two kids with Tinglan. But he benefits from white privilege that Tinglan and her two children do not have.
And maybe I’m totally wrong here and it was just his kids he shares with Anna and it was just a standard security question. But my mind went to the kids Hugh shares with his other baby mama first.
I just saw him interviewed on TV about this and he confirmed he was traveling with his 3 children with his wife Anna, not his children with Tinglan. In any event it’s an everyday occurrence that he’d be asked that question but we know how crusty Grant can be at the best of times.
Just gotta give love for the profile pic. Spaghetti Cat! RIP McHale’s Soup era 🙂
@Meghan — ah yes, the good old days of Mankini and the Dancing Maxi Pad!! LOL!!
The article isn’t clear but if he was travelling with all his children, 2 of them have a different mother and are half Asian. I suspect it was one of those two who was asked the questions. And Hugh being an old white British guy isn’t used to how differently non white people are treated when they travel.
A little food for thought: I’m from the UK (South East based) but my husband is from Turkey and still actively in the middle of his visa, so we’re well used to the long, long process of getting through the foreign passport gates. Of those Heathrow was hands down the worst for agents taking their time, asking seemingly unnecessary questions, and just in general giving off a real racist, xenophobic vibe.
So while he sounds like he’s taking the issue a little sensitively in this retelling, it also wouldn’t be unheard of in my experience for the situation to have been handled in an unpleasant fashion. And unfortunately so.
I agree and left a comment to that effect.
My son and I have different last names and when he was about 10 we were also stopped at Heathrow and he was asked who I was etc. It was a little unsettling but I totally get why they were doing it. However, we are both white, blue eyes and look alike so I wouldn’t be surprised that they may be a little more intrusive if the child and parent look different which could be upsetting.
He’s been thoroughly challenged on Twatter
Can be such a pompous idiot of the ‘Don’t you know who I am ?’ brigade
I used to work at Heathrow & he’s no one special ,likely requesting free upgrades at any opportunity
Rags like the Daily Snail would be complaining about child protection in the next breath if the officer didn’t challenge on a regular basis
An infamous & often used expression ,especially by actors
The world famous response very many years ago when a check in agent stood on the counter at Heathrow
& announced,’ ladies & gentlemen does anyone know this person they have lost their memory!
’As they would say at Wimbledon ‘Advantage airline ‘
For those keeping score
Do you know which of his kids it was? Two of his kids are biracial – their mom being Chinese. For all you know it was directed at them and it freaked him out.
He was with his 3 kids he has with Anna Eberstein, all Caucasian and all with the last name Grant on their passports.
I totally understand the need for security, but also, some of these officials get off on the power they have. There are ways to ask necessary questions in sensitive ways.
The problem is UK border officials often ask unnecessary questions which are frankly embarrassing.
I’m a EU citizen with permanent leave to remain in the UK as does my mentally disabled son.
Last May I was asked upon returning to the UK what was my purpose in coming. I’ve been a permanent resident for 13 years, I replied to which the guy next asked Why haven’t you become a UK citizen?
Next my son, a dependent adult (autism +schizophrenia) was asked, as a joke, if it was really his name, but it wasn’t funny, rather offensive. His father’s parents came from Iraq & Syria , and we agreed when he was in kindergarten to have his last name to mine because of racism. Now, I happen to have an old aristocratic surname & be blond with blue eyes.. but my son definitely looks like a
MiddleEastern. We ended up waiting 45
mn to return here when he was a student in a UK university by 2009! 15 years of residency…
15 years ago.
Yeah, this was an overreaction by Hugh. The immigration officer was just doing his job.
We were crossing from Minnesota into Thunder bay and at the crossing ( standing outside of the car at their direction) my children were asked my name. My youngest said ” Mommy is it ok to talk to a stranger “. We finished the car search and left. This was over 30 years ago but it was nothing to get upset about. Business as usual when traveling.
If he wasn’t detained, his experience doesn’t sound that bad to me. Maybe he doesn’t look like Hugh Grant anymore, so he got the regular, nerve wracking treatment everyone else gets.
It never bothers me, and I never found the question creepy. I often fly US domestic with my grandson and my daughter, and he is ALWAYS asked this question. I don’t know if this question has ever uncovered a trafficking situation but if they are going to be over cautious then please do be over cautions with children. Hugh has his nose out of joint because he suspects it’s because he is an older father. Boo-hoo.
The british passport people are the rudest Ive ever encountered in any of my travels
My son is asked these types of questions literally every time we go on a flight. They first ask “What’s your name?” and he answers, then they ask, “And who’s this?” and he says, “My mom.” Every single fight since he has been able to speak. Completely normal and checking for child trafficking. Fine by me.
I wonder if Hugh is just upset because the immigration officer didn’t recognize him?