Ricky Gervais has revealed several times the reasons why he doesn't want - and never will have - children.
Gervais and his long-term partner Jane Fallon have been together since 1982, when they met at university, and the couple have never made the decision to have children.
The comedian has explained on numerous occasions his reasoning behind not becoming a father, including earlier this year when he said while there are ‘many reasons’ he’s not had kids, with one simply being that he feels ‘there are enough’ knocking about planet earth already.
In January, Gervais was promoting the final season of his Netflix show Afterlife on a Radio Times podcast when Pope Francis’ comments that ‘having pets over children is selfish’ came up.
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Gervais dismissed the bishop of Rome’s remarks while also offering an insight into his own thoughts on parenthood.
“How can not having children be selfish?” Gervais queried.
“It doesn’t make any sense. How can it be selfish not to bring something into the world that doesn’t exist on any level? There is not a big line, or a cage, of unborn foetuses going, ‘We want to be born!’”
He went on: “I don’t have kids for many reasons, but one is that there is enough. No one is going, ‘Gervais isn’t having kids! We’re going to run out soon’.”
Speaking at the Vatican in January, Pope Francis had commented: "Today... we see a form of selfishness. We see that some people do not want to have a child. Sometimes they have one, and that's it, but they have dogs and cats that take the place of children.”
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Gervais also told Ellen DeGeneres in 2019 that kids are off the cards because he’d spend too much time fretting over their wellbeing.
The Office creator explained on The Ellen Show: “I'd worry sick about a baby. 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."
And a year earlier, the topic of children was again discussed when Gervais joked about not wanting to be a parent during Humanity, the stand-up tour he released on Netflix in 2018.
Taking to the stage, the funnyman told the audience: “I’ve thought about it, and there’s reasons I don’t have children. One, there’s millions. The world’s overpopulated. Two, kids are scroungers. From day one, it’s all me, me, me.”
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Gervais’ partner, who's an author, has also spoken candidly about the fact she doesn’t want kids.
Fallon told Marie Claire in 2014: "I remember steeling myself, trying to imagine what I would do if [Ricky] had a change of heart [about having kids].
"I was so convinced of my decision that I couldn't even imagine the alternative. It turned out he had been having the same anxiety about me. Cue much relief and celebration."
Featured Image Credit: Netflix/AlamyTopics: Ricky Gervais