Daniel Radcliffe has been famous since childhood, but one person in his house has no idea.
His son, born in April 2023, does not know his dad played Harry Potter, and Radcliffe wants it to stay that way for as long as possible.
The DVD on the kitchen table
Radcliffe told the story in a video interview with The New York Times in February 2026, while promoting his Broadway play Every Brilliant Thing.
Someone had handed him a Harry Potter DVD to sign, and it stayed on the kitchen table for a couple of days.
His son walked up to it, and Radcliffe asked him who the boy on the cover was. The toddler did not recognize his father’s younger face.
Asked directly, Radcliffe gave a short answer: “Does my son know who Harry Potter is? No, not yet.”
He knows the secret has an expiry date. “For as long as I can just be his dad,” he said, he will stretch it out, so the boy does not know him as anything else.
Of all the celebrity parenting stories this year, this is the one I keep coming back to.
Daniel Radcliffe attends the Los Angeles Premiere Of Paramount Pictures’ “The Lost City” held on March 21, 2022 in Los Angeles – @Getty
Radcliffe spent 10 years playing the most famous boy wizard on the planet, and he is hiding that from a toddler with a DVD cover as the only real threat.
Why he wants to wait
Radcliffe has never pretended child fame was easy.
In an April 2026 chat with Hello! Daniel said he used to be “deeply unhappy,” and that he barely recognizes that person since becoming a father.
He does not want the same path for his boy. “I honestly wouldn’t want my son to act or to become famous,” he said.
In June 2024, he told E! News his son would act only if the kid really wanted to.
Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe attend a photocall to present the new cast of the Harry Potter Films, London, August 23, 2000 – @Getty
He has also admitted that explaining his job to a 3-year-old is close to impossible.
Talking to People in May 2026, he joked that acting is a silly job if you can’t describe it to a child. (He used a stronger word than silly.)
Why he would pick the HBO show over his films
Radcliffe has no plan to ban Harry Potter from the house.
If his son finds the books one day, he is happy to go through them together: “If he gets into them, I totally will.”
The films are another matter.
Daniel Radcliffe attends the premiere of “The Lost City” during the 2022 SXSW Conference and Festivals at The Paramount Theatre on March 12, 2022 in Austin – @Getty
On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in March 2026, he said he is delighted that one day his son “can watch a version that is not me.”
He also joked that audiences have had 3 Spider-Mans, so a new Harry is overdue.
That version arrives on HBO and HBO Max on December 25, 2026, with Dominic McLaughlin as Harry. Radcliffe’s son is 3, so Hogwarts is probably a few years away from bedtime conversation.
The secret came close to slipping this year. Radcliffe told People he was watching the Winter Olympics with Erin Darke and their son when a ad for Every Brilliant Thing came on, right after he had stepped out of the room.
Daniel Radcliffe and partner Erin Darke pose at the opening night after party for the new Manhattan Theatre Club play “Vladimir” at Tanner Smith’s on October 15, 2024 in New York City – @Getty
The boy spotted his father on TV and called out “Dada.”
Luckily for Radcliffe, the ad was for a one-man play about a list of things that make life worth living, with no wand in sight.
What we know about Radcliffe’s son
Very little, on purpose. Radcliffe and Darke met in 2012 on the set of Kill Your Darlings, where they played love interests.
Their son was born in April 2023, and the couple has never made his name public.
His first public outing was a picket line.
In July 2023, Radcliffe and Darke showed up to the actors’ strike in New York with the baby strapped to his chest in a carrier.
Daniel Radcliffe and Erin Darke attend The 77th Annual Tony Awards at David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center on June 16, 2024 – @Getty
Radcliffe rarely talks about him and gives less details than fans would like.
When he does, it is brief and warm. Accepting his Tony in 2024, he thanked Darke and called her and their son the best thing that has ever happened to him.
His year on Broadway
Every Brilliant Thing opened at the Hudson Theatre on March 12, 2026.
Radcliffe plays a man who, as a boy, starts a list of wonderful things to cheer up his depressed mother, and he talks directly to the audience for most of the night.
The production recouped it’s $5.75 million investment in just over 2 months.
It also earned Radcliffe a 2026 Tony nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Play, 2 years after he won Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Merrily We Roll Along.
Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe at the world premiere of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – 2011 – @Getty
Radcliffe has stayed out of the new show’s way, with one exception. After Dominic McLaughlin, which was 11 at the time, got the part, Radcliffe wrote him a letter.
He told Good Morning America in November 2025 that the boy sent him “a very sweet note back.”
In that letter, he wished McLaughlin “an even better time than I did.”
He also said he has no intention of hovering over the new young cast, because those kids deserve to make the role theirs without him looking over their shoulders.
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I am Bulgarea Candin Stefan, and I founded FamousPeopleToday.com in 2018. I’m using my bachelor’s degree in economics and 9 years of experience in blogging to guide millions of people through the incredibly complex world of celebrity net worths.