Jason Bateman breaks silence after backlash over Charli xcx remarks

Jason Bateman is responding to the backlash he got after he talked to Charli xcx about her potentially having kids one day.

During her appearance on the Smartless podcast, which Bateman hosts with Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, Charli spoke about not wanting to have kids.

The topic arose when she noted that not having siblings makes it difficult to navigate conflict, saying, "I don’t have any siblings. I actually think not having siblings actually means that you miss out on a lot of conflict, and I mean that in, actually, a bad way. I think my friends that have siblings are so much better at conflict, as in, they don’t, kind of, amplify it into this huge dramatic thing. They’re able to move through it a lot more quickly than I am because they know how to diffuse it."

Bateman asked whether this means she would want to have "more than one kid" and Charli replied, "I actually don’t really want to have kids."

"I love the fantasy of having a child. Like, naming it sounds so fun. But I’m like, that is exactly a sign to me as to why I should not have one," she shared. "The fact that that feels like the coolest part about it, I’m like, 'Maybe I’m not ready.'"

The Ozark star showed a serious lack of research about the singer when he commented that she "might find somebody" who’d change her mind about it.

The singer noted, "Well I’m married, so." 

Bateman quipped, "I gotta read a newspaper one of these days. … Well maybe, your next husband you’re going to want kids."

In online comments, fans schooled the actor for grilling Charli about having kids.

"We were having a great conversation about her life growing up as an only child. It seemed like a very natural follow-up to that," Bateman noe says of the episode in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published on Wednesday, February 18.

"That’s all it was. I don’t really have much [else] to say about it, except that it is always interesting and valuable and educational to hear people’s thoughts, reactions and feelings to anything I say or do," he added.