Ricky Gervais reveals why he chooses to remain childless on 'The Ellen Show': "I have a cat..."
Ricky Gervais has been in the longest courtship with college sweetheart Jane Fallon, the couple have been together since over four decades after meeting in 1982. They haven't tied the knot yet and have no offspring. Gervais has on several occasions lamented about being scrutinzed for not having children, in 2017 he appeared on 'The Ellen DeGeneres Show' and defended his views. "I'd worry sick about a baby," he confessed. "I have a cat and I worry about that. I check the door three times before I go out. I put food and water in every room in case the door closes and he's peckish for 20 minutes."
As per The Things, he also cited the increasing world population as one of the major reasons he refrained from contributing to the growth of the human species. "There's loads of reasons why I don't have kids," he added. "The world is overpopulated; no one's sitting around going, 'Oh, Rick's not going to have kids; we're going to run out; there's loads!'" he mocked. He also hilariously confessed to being tired of dodging the traditional question about not having children from media outlets. "No, they ask people all the time in the press, Why don't you have children? Which is a really odd question to ask someone: why don't you have children? As opposed to asking people, why do you have children? You know what I mean?"
The animal lover admitted that he loved rescuing animals over dealing with human babies, "I like people. They're just not my favorite animal," he cheekily replied. This is not the first time the British comedian has addressed the issue openly. He highlighted his grievance with tabloids trying to evade his private decision on the Netflix special - Humanity, "Another question that I always get, particularly with the posh papers, the Sundays, they're doing a profile piece, and they're still trying to alienate you and make you look different and they always say things like, "No, you don't have children." he continued, "People say, "Oh, it's selfish to not have children." How can it be selfish to not bring a life into the world that doesn't exist on any level?" he reasoned during the special.
Garvais then went on to list the three main reasons he willing to remain childless; the first, he said, was that the world is overpopulated. The second reason he gave was that children and the cost of living don't match; there are always school, lifestyle, and medical bills. Additionally, he stated that one could lose a child at an early age due to some illness or other; the third reason he listed was that children are often ungrateful. They don't look after their parents after getting older, and most of them end up doing drugs. "You know, I worked from nothing, and I gave it to you," he imagined saying it to his child, referring to making a fortune without having a right heir. According to People, Gervais and Fallon have nurtured a lot of animals at their home, cats in particular.