Hugh Grant is revealed to be campaigning against laptops in schools, stating that “it’s the last thing they fucking need”.
Per The Telegraph, Grant – who has five children – was seen speaking at London’s Knightsbridge School for an event last week by Close Screens Open Minds, an advocacy group co-founded by Peep Show actress Sophie Winkleman.
“The final straw was when the school started saying, with some smugness, we give every child a Chromebook,” Grant was reported saying in his speech, “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 fucking thing they need, and the last thing we need.”
Grant is married to Anna Elisabet Eberstein, and the couple share three children. The actor has a son and daughter from previous relationships.
Grant reportedly introduced himself to the crowd as “another angry parent fighting the eternal, exhausting and depressive battle with children who only want to be on a screen”.
Grant appeared alongside US psychologist Dr Jonathan Haidt – the author of 2024 non-fiction book The Anxiety Generation – who is campaigning for schools to be phone-free, to ban access to smartphones for those under 14, and social media banned to anyone under 16.
The group wrote on Instagram that it will upload Grant’s recent campaign speech “as soon as it is ready”.
This isn’t the first time Grant has participated in the campaign – in February, the group shared a recording of a private Zoom event hosted by Wilkinson. In the video, Grant praised Dr Haidt as “the great hero in the vanguard of this fight against a massive… perhaps the biggest, most powerful industry in the world, which has set its sights on destroying our children’s childhoods.”
Earlier this month, Grant hit out at Heathrow airport security after an exchange between an immigration officer and his children.
He recalled the incident on X/Twitter, saying: “Just came through Heathrow with wife and children. 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?’”. He described the exchange as: “Intrusive, insulting and creepy”.
Hugh Grant has moved out of his expected genre of romantic comedies in recent years, playing a horror villain in 2024 hit Heretic. He did, however, return to one of his most familiar roles in February, reprising the part of Daniel Cleaver for Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy.
While the film debuted on streaming service Peacock in the US, in the film’s home country of the UK it was a smash hit at the box office, with sales for the fourth instalment of the series outpacing Barbie at one point.