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Sam Claflin says ‘men should get more paternity leave’

'It’s definitely a trying time being a new father and trying to go back to work'

Olivia Petter
Thursday 25 April 2019 09:27 BST
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(Getty Images for Paramount Pictu)

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Actor Sam Claflin has said he thinks men should get more paternity leave.

In the UK, fathers are currently entitled to one or two weeks leave following the birth of their child.

Speaking on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio on Wednesday, the Me Before You star, who has two children with wife Laura Haddock, discussed the difficulties of juggling parenting duties while he was filming his latest project, a thriller titled The Corrupted.

“I was a new dad and was trying to chase around gangsters in London,” the 32-year-old told Evans, who then asked him which one he found more difficult.

“Definitely the former, having the baby, being the daddy,” Claflin responded. “It’s definitely a trying time being a new father and trying to go back to work.

“I definitely feel, and here I am saying this on air, I feel like men should get more paternity leave.”

Evans, who has seven-month-old twins with wife Natasha Shishmanian, concurred, saying “hashtag us too”.

Claflin went on to gush about his two children, Pip, three, and Margot, one.

“I love being a father, I love having two, I genuinely embrace the challenge,” he told the radio host.

“I think every guy should be as hands-on as much as they can be. I think that’s what’s wonderful about our society as it is now, I feel men are willing and wanting to be more involved than they used to be.”

Claflin's comments come after Bim Afolami MP became the "first father in British parliamentary history" to vote by proxy while he was on paternity leave.

In February, the Conservative MP, who represents Hitchin and Harpenden, announced on social media that he would be taking time off from work following the birth of his third child to help support his wife throughout the “tough, tough nights” and to take their sons to school and nursery.

"You can be busy and ambitious and take paternity leave,” he later told Sky News in an interview.

The Corrupted arrives in UK cinemas on 10 May.

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