Kelsey Grammar revealed this week he’s become a father for the eighth time, after welcoming his fourth child with his wife Kayte Walsh.
The actor, 70, shared the surprise news during an appearance on the Pod Meets World podcast, just four months after Daily Mail share he and Kayte were set to become parents again.
Kelsey, who has been married four times, has shared how he’s embraced fatherhood with his younger brood with Kayte, admitting he sees it as an attempt to ‘make up for lost time,’ after ‘neglecting’ his older children from his previous marriages.
The Frasier star has previously admitted he could be a ‘scary’ parent at times, but confessed he had ‘no examples’ of fatherhood as his parents divorced when he was still a toddler.
Kelsey and Kayte, who married in 2011, are now parents to four children – daughter Faith, 13, as well as sons Kelsey Gabriel, 11, and Auden James, eight, and their new baby boy, Christopher.
He first became a father in 1983 when he welcomed daughter Spencer, 42, during his two-year marriage to Doreen Alderman, which ended in 1990.
Kelsey Grammar shared how become a father with his fourth wife gives him the chance to ‘make up’ after ‘neglecting’ his older kids (pictured with his eldest daughter Spencer)
The Frasier star revealed on Monday he’d welcomed his fourth child with his fourth wife Kayte Walsh, a baby boy named Christopher (pictured together in January)
He then welcomed daughter Greer, 33, with retired hair/make-up artist Barrie Buckner, whom he reportedly dated between 1991 and 1992.
Kelsey welcomed two more children – daughter Mason, 24; and son Jude, 21 – during his 13-year marriage to third ex-wife Camille Meyer, which ended in 2011.
In an interview with People last year, Kelsey admitted that since he and Kayte started a family together he’s been trying to ‘make up’ for ‘neglecting’ his older family.
The couple even relocated to the UK in 2023, with the actor saying at the time it was so they could be closer to Kayte’s Bristolian family.
He said: ‘I have neglected a couple of the kids in my life, especially the first two. I’m trying to make up for a little of it now. I’m still their dad, so you can always have [a] chance to show up.
‘I probably should have been a little more clear and maybe less tolerant with the older ones,’ he says.
‘I’m pretty tolerant with the young ones, but I’m clear about how there’s certain expectations and certain ways to navigate through a social situation: keep it close to the vest and play it straight, and you’re going to be well-served in your life.
‘I’m a little more specific with them about doing their studies and being prepared. [I tell them], ”What’s your job in life? Showing up.”
Kelsey (pictured with his second child Greer), admitted he ‘neglected’ his two older children, and has shared in interviews there were some ‘tough times’ in their relationship
Kelsey also had a fraught relationship with his third wife Camille, with whom he shares daughter Mason and son Jude (pictured in 2014)
Camille claimed that the breakdown in contact between herself and Kelsey in the wake of their split ‘affected the kids for a very long time’
Kelsey also opened up about his relationship with his older children in 2019, admitted he had struggled with some distance from his eldest daughter Spencer when he married his second wife.
Speaking on In Depth With Graham Bensinger, he said: ‘I think I’m a good father, I think I’m fair and sometimes a little scary. I think you need to be able to have a voice that stops a child in its tracks.
‘If you have a kid that’s running out in the street, you hope that you’ve established in them something that says ”oh that’s the voice. I better just stop”
‘There it is. There are consequences to that that might be not good, so somebody has to administer justice in the household, there has to be a hierarchy and an understanding, and you try to be good to your kids and explain things, but there are some things you need to just point to and say ”look this is a bad idea” and to take my word for it, that goes pretty well.’
During that interview, Kelsey note that he only had his grandfather as a reference for fatherhood, as he had little contact with his father Allen after his parents divorced when he was still a toddler.
The actor shared in his memoir that his father was shot and killed by a taxi driver during a wave of racial violence in St. Thomas when he was 12, and just seven years later, his sister Karen was raped and fatally stabbed weeks before her 19th birthday.
‘I had no examples of fatherhood, except I did have Gordon to a point, and so up to there I was pretty good, telling the truth, try to be decent to all people.
‘Those are good things, to be respectful of all people, and to be a gentleman, and be a young lady, I think those are still terms that can be applied in our society…’
Reflecting on his relationship with his daughter Spencer, he said: ‘I think I was a pretty good dad to her, my daughter Spencer, she was the first one right? So I guess I cut my teeth on her a little bit, but I was always, I was with her all the time when she was younger.
‘When I had my second wife, we spent a little more time apart, and I’m not sure that was helpful.
‘You come back around, you have enough time, you get to restore all the sense of love and intimacy that can be there between a father and daughter. I think that’s all there now. We had some tough times.’
Reflecting on his relationship with his daughter Spencer, he said: ‘When I had my second wife, we spent a little more time apart, and I’m not sure that was helpful’
Last year, the six-time Emmy winner acted opposite his 33-year-old daughter Greer (with ex-wife Barrie Buckner) during season two of his Paramount+ sitcom revival, Frasier
Kelsey and his wife Kayte welcomed their first child together when he was 57, and the actor has shared his gratitude at being able to ‘try again’ at fatherhood (pictured in 2018)
Kelsey has also had a fraught relationship with his third wife Camille, with whom he shares two children.
Despite being married for 13 years, Camille claimed that their children would question why there was no contact between them.
She told Entertainment Tonight in 2016: ‘He was the love of my life. I always thought that we could stay amicable.
‘[But] I’ve learned to live with that fact that maybe this is just the way it’s going to be and I’ve accepted it now.’
When asked why Kelsey won’t talk to her she said: ‘You’d really have to ask him, and since I’m not a therapist I can only guess, but maybe there’s some guilt on his part.
‘My daughter talked to him a couple of times and said, “Dad, why don’t you talk to mom?'” He goes, “It’ll make me feel bad.”‘
She added it has ‘affected the kids for a very long time.’
Camille also claimed that her daughter Mason underwent therapy ‘to empower herself’ in the wake of the split.
Kelsey and his wife Kayte welcomed their first child together when he was 57, and since becoming an older parent, the actor has shared his gratitude at being able to ‘try again’ at fatherhood.
‘Honestly, the beauty of being an older dad is you get a chance to kinda try it again. That’s been a real gift,’ he told The Guardian in 2018.
Kayte is a former flight attendant who met Grammer when he was a passenger on one of her flights to London back in 2009.
Their relationship began when the actor was still legally married to The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum Camille.
‘We actually met in the air on a plane to England,’ he told Jimmy Kimmel of their romance back in 2012.
‘It was very romantic, she was working on the plane.
‘We went out for coffee several days later and had this magical night in the snow in London around Christmas time. It was two years ago.’
The two lovebirds announced their engagement in December 2010, and tied the knot during a romantic ceremony two months later on February 25, 2011 at The Plaza Hotel in the heart of New York City.
