Jimmy Kimmel has begun his grandfather era.
The late-night host, 57, announced on his May 20 show that his daughter Katie, 33, has welcomed her first child. Kimmel explained this was why he did not air a new episode the evening prior, as Katie and her husband Will welcomed a baby girl “right at the time we shoot our show.”
The baby’s name is Patti, and she is “very healthy,” he said. Her middle name is Joan, which is Kimmel’s mother’s name, and he recalled that there was an “army of family” at the hospital when she was born.
Kimmel also apologized to the people who were supposed to be in the studio audience during his canceled May 19 show, as well as to Seth Rogen, who he said was scheduled to be the guest. “Luckily, he was totally high when I called him,” Kimmel quipped.
Kimmel shares two adult children, 33-year-old Katie and 31-year-old Kevin, with his ex-wife Gina Maddy. He also shares 10-year-old Jane and 8-year-old Billy with Molly McNearney, whom he married in 2013. McNearney also produces Kimmel’s late-night show.
Kimmel’s son Billy was born with a congenital heart condition and has undergone three open-heart surgeries. In 2024, after Billy’s third surgery, the late-night host wrote on Instagram that “we went into this experience with a lot of optimism and nearly as much fear and came out with a new valve inside a happy, healthy kid.”
In his May 20 monologue, Kimmel said it’s a “big responsibility to be a grandfather,” only to jokingly take a long pause while trying to think of what a grandfather does. “I have to figure out something weird to teach my grandkid,” he said.
He also reflected on how it’s “kind of scary to bring a child into this world” today.
“These kids have to worry about the climate going on fire, MAGA, AI,” he said. “You know what we had to worry about? The most dangerous scenarios the future held when I was a kid (were) quicksand, the Bermuda Triangle and killer bees.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jimmy Kimmel kids: Comic becomes grandfather, daughter welcomes child
