Jack Whitehall has reflected on his close relationship with his parents despite a childhood filled with nannies and boarding school.
The TV star, who married his long-time girlfriend Roxy Horner on Saturday, admitted his bond with talent agent dad Michael, 86, is somewhat of a mystery as he barely saw him as a child.
Jack attended boarding schools, including the prestigious Marlborough College in Wiltshire, from the age of nine, and Michael has admitted he wasn’t the most hands-on dad to Jack, his younger sister Molly and brother Barnaby, leaving most of the work to their mum Hilary, 64.
‘There were a lot of nannies. There were a lot of boarding schools. When did I see him?’ Jack said. ‘We made up for it later, travelling the world together and have spent a lot of time with each other. So maybe that was the best way round.’
Jack, 37, tied the knot with model girlfriend Roxy, 34, at the 17th-century Euridge Manor in the Cotswolds over the weekend where a slew of stars attended the £250k do.
Hilary, 64, was spotted looking glam in a red sequin dress on the big day, but there was dress code drama in the run-up to the wedding, thanks to the groom.
Jack Whitehall has reflected on his close relationship with his parents despite a childhood filled with nannies and boarding school
The star, who married his Roxy Horner on Saturday, admitted his bond with dad Michael, 86, is somewhat of a mystery; Michael and Hilary pictured over the wedding weekend
The Daily Mail’s Richard Eden revealed Jack gave his mother a dress code ‘several weeks ago’ only for her to learn his instructions were incorrect.
She said: ‘When I asked Jack what the dress code was several weeks ago… he gave me the wrong dress code.
‘I got the wrong dress, [then] the wedding invitation arrived with a completely different dress code on it. [Jack] said, “Sorry about that, Mumsy”.’
Jack has long referred to Michael and Hilary as nepo parents.
Michael rose to fame after starring on his travel documentary Jack Whitehall: Travels With My Father alongside the comedian from 2017 to 2021.
The couple then launched their own podcast The Wittering Whitehalls in 2022, which has had more than five million downloads, as well as appearing together in Celebrity Goggle Box Stand Up To Cancer and co-authoring the book How to Survive Family Holidays.
And as their fame has soared, Jack has joked he is back to not seeing his parents anymore, telling the Hanging Out With Ant & Dec podcast ‘they’ve literally cut me loose’.
‘I gave them an opportunity. They appeared on television with me. They got a modicum of fame. And then the minute they had that and they had their agency, they got their own podcast, which I’ve not been invited on’.
The Daily Mail revealed Jack gave his mother a dress code ‘several weeks ago’ only for her to learn his instructions were incorrect; Roxy pictured with Jack’s parents on Sunday
‘They’re now going on tour doing live podcast shows. And my mum was on the bl**dy Weakest Link the other day. I turned on the television on a Saturday night. They’ve completely cut me loose because they don’t need me anymore’.
Jack and new wife Roxy are parents to their two-year-old daughter Elsie, with Jack joking their parenting style is worlds apart from his own mum and dad’s.
‘Well, I haven’t done a boarding school yet. Do they do boarding nurseries? Is that a thing?’
‘I’m so blessed, but also [she’s] a great source of material,’ he added of Elsie. ‘Oh my god…the well was dry in terms of chucking my dad under the bus and I needed to find a new angle desperately’.
‘Elsie came along at just the right time because it’s it’s such a fun thing to talk about. You just get the notepad out every day and just jotting down all of the gold that she’s she’s coming up with.’
‘I do feel a like slight pang of guilt as well that, all of this material and me talking about her will live somewhere…but you know, she can talk to her therapist about that in 20 years time. We don’t need to worry about that too much’.
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