Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe becomes father, welcomes first child with girlfriend Erin Darke

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe and his long-term girlfriend Erin Darke have been blessed with a baby. A rep for Daniel has confirmed the news to US-based outlet PEOPLE. The couple has not revealed the sex of the baby, or when the child was born.

The update has left the actors' fans extremely happy. "How time flies! Harry Potter star is now a father," a social media user commented."So so so happy for them," another user wrote. News broke in March that the "Miracle Workers" co-stars were starting a family.

 

 

 

 

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Darke (38) debuted her baby bump in a black zip-up hoodie that same month during a New York City walk with her partner. Daniel and Darke have been together since their meeting on the Kill Your Darlings set in 2012. Daniel was 12 when he was cast as the bespectacled boy wizard in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in 2001. He went on to appear in all eight films based on the books written by JK Rowling. More recently, he played the lead role in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, for which he was nominated for a Bafta.

Earlier, Daniel Radcliffe opened up about why it was important for him to make a public statement about Harry Potter author JK Rowling for her views on the transgender community. 

During the summer of 2020, Rowling came under fire for candidly expressing her views about gender identity, which was perceived as transphobic by many. One of her tweets from back then reads, "I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn't hate to speak the truth." 

According to Variety, recently in an interview with IndieWire, Radcliffe said, "The reason I felt very, very much as though I needed to say something when I did was that, particularly since finishing Potter, I've met so many queer and trans kids and young people who had a huge amount of identification with Potter on that. So seeing them hurt on that day I was like, I wanted them to know that not everybody in the franchise felt that way. And that was really important," he added.

Back in 2020, after Rowling's anti-trans sentiment drew backlash, the actor penned an open letter that was shared by the Trevor Project website. He wrote, "Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional healthcare associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I. It's clear that we need to do more to support transgender and nonbinary people, not invalidate their identities, and not cause further harm, " as per Variety. (With inputs from ANI)