Harrison Ford Reveals He Would've Been a "Better Parent" to His 5 Kids if He Was "Less Successful" | “I Accept My Flaws”

Harrison Ford admitted that he has learned a lot over the years as a father and how having a younger child in his life made him "just a bit less self-centered."

Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Amy Sussman

By Shruti Menon

June 5, 2023

Posted June 5, 2023

Harrison Ford is getting honest about his role as a father. The actor shares two sons Benjamin, 56, and Willard, 54 with his first wife, illustrator Mary Marquardt. With his second wife ET screenwriter Melissa Mathison, he shares a son Malcolm, 35, and a daughter Georgia, 32. Ford and his current wife of 13 years, Calista Flockhart share her son Liam, 21 whom Ford adopted.

Harrison Ford, 80, and Calista Flockhart, 58, attend rarely seen son Liam’s graduation https://t.co/sGoUDPyJbQ pic.twitter.com/OxNe4UD9Vi
— Page Six (@PageSix) May 30, 2023

Ford has some thoughts about whether becoming a parent changes a person. While agreeing that he'd without a doubt take a bullet for his children, he acknowledged he perhaps could have been a better parent in his life. “If I’d been less successful, I’d probably be a better parent,” the Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny star, 80, told Esquire in an interview published on May 31. The Star Wars icon said, "I accept my flaws and my failures — I don't accept them, I own them. And certainly, the more constant gardener is the better parent, and I've been out of town, up my own a**, for most of my life," according to PEOPLE.

Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by (L & R) Mike Coppola — Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by (L & R) Mike Coppola

The Fugitive star shared that his wife who he's been with since 2010 gives him “s—t” about not taking his “mental health seriously." The actor explained, "I was trying to say, as I explained to her: It’s that I accommodate all of the flaws that people go to psychiatrists to accommodate because I accept my flaws.”

The Chicago native was over 60 years old when he adopted Liam. He's learned a lot over the years as a father and admitted that his "older children have taught me a lot," Ford told The Independent in 2010. "My first child was born when I was 25; I reckon I'm a little better at [parenting] now." When asked about raising his then-9-year-old son Liam, Ford responded, "I've got five kids in total, so it's not my first rodeo. Yeah, obviously, I'm getting older but I don't relate to it very much. It doesn't interest me as something to dwell on. I have a 9-year-old kid at home. I feel like the father of a 9-year-old."

Love the way Harrison Ford is adoringly looking at his wife Calista Flockhart. pic.twitter.com/Fvd3t6xnh0
— AskAubry 🦝 (@ask_aubry) May 29, 2023

According to PEOPLE, he also confessed in 2008 how having a younger child in his life "made me just a bit less self-centered." He revealed how Calista had brought a child back into his home."It’s a wonderful opportunity to be part of a child’s growing up, which is always an endless springtime. You see the blossoming and the growing and the nurturing and the payoff,” he shared. The actor also opened up about how his wife is an incredible mother and partner. "She’s a mother by choice – she adopted Liam before we met, as a single parent, which is an awesome responsibility to take. She’s devoted herself to Liam and has done a really wonderful job raising him. I’m happy to now have a part of the job,” Ford beamed.