Actor Hugh Grant has angrily criticised an “insulting and creepy” experience at Heathrow Airport, saying an immigration officer unnecessarily questioned his children about whether he was their father.
The Notting Hill and Bridget Jones’s Diary star, who was Bafta-nominated earlier this year for his rare scary role in the 2024 horror film Heretic, said the incident happened on Friday (4 April) as he travelled through the airport with his wife and three children.
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?” . Intrusive, insulting and creepy.
— Hugh Grant (@HackedOffHugh) April 4, 2025
Writing on X/Twitter, Grant said: “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?’”
Grant described the encounter as “intrusive, insulting and creepy”.
The actor was travelling with the three children, aged 12, nine and seven, whom he shares with his wife, Anna Elisabet Eberstein. He also has two older children, aged 13 and 12, with his ex-partner Tinglan Hong.
Grant, who generally keeps his family life private, did not reveal where he was travelling to or from.
Immigration officers—officially known as Border Force officers—are employed by the Home Office, not by Heathrow Airport itself.
Official government guidance notes that officers “may ask” travellers “a few questions” if they “are not the child’s parent” or “if you have a different family name” to “establish your relationship with the child” in a way that “is sensitive to the interests of the child and the adult involved”.
