TV's beloved funnyman is known for his larger-than-life personality on the screen, but when it comes to family,
As host of 'The Wheel', he may be a household name, but Michael keeps his two teenage sons, away from the limelight. However, these lads have inadvertently inspired some of their dad's most hilarious stand-up moments.
Spotted only occasionally alongside their dad at Spurs football games or matches, Lucas and Oscar maintain a low-key existence, not shadowed by the dazzle of their dad's fame. In a particularly unforgettable comedy bit, 48-year-old Michael divulged the hilarious names he contemplated giving his boys.
Here's the inside scoop on his family ties and paternal punchlines.
Dad of two
Michael, takes pride in fathering his two sons, now both navigating their teen years. The tots may have matured, but they were once the fodder for Michael's relatable parenthood humour during their younger years. Narrating one of his comedic routines, Michael tossed about the idea of what he might have named his sons under different circumstances.
He recounted: "I've got two children, Lucas and Oscar - Lucas with a C. And you know what, I gave them their names because I like them, they're lovely names." The joke continued with the exasperated dad confessing the daily domestic realities: "But I didn't realise what it was going to be like, they're seven and four now and they don't do a thing that I tell them to. I shout the names that I gave them now, all day I shout the names that I lovingly selected for them."
Wrapping up his jest with a wishful twist, Michael quipped: "If I had've known what it was going to be like, I would have named them Hey and Oi, it would have been so much easier."
In the early days of fatherhood, comic Michael couldn't help but share his worries when he said: "My son's got two words: car and map, that's all he can say. 'Car, car, map, car!' I'm fairly worried he's trying to escape. So if the next word is passport, we're in serious trouble."
He later joked about the silent bliss of children in slumber: "You never love your children more than when they're unconscious, but still breathing." However, as his lads hit their teenage years, he confessed to feeling a bit out of touch, telling the Mail on Sunday in 2020: "I have only done this show to appear cool to them, but they watch other things. I am not a comedy star in their eyes. My teenage son thinks I am a very annoying person."
Famous wife
When it comes to his marriage, In his 2010 narrative Life and Laughing, he revealed: "She was the girl I had been looking for. In the romantic comedy that was my life, this would have made a good ending." He wished for a fairytale closure, saying: "We would fall happily ever after. Within moments of seeing her and chatting to her I was totally up for that ending. Unfortunately, she wasn't."
And appearing on Desert Island Discs, he unveiled family insights stating: "Unfortunately my grandma didn't really like it when I got a girlfriend. She was trying to break us up which was funny for a while but then it became quite vicious, an untenable situation." Kitty, who practices aromatherapy, isn't new to the spotlight with an acting legacy that boasts her father Simon Ward and her sister Sophie Ward in the ranks.
Following Simon's passing in 2012, Michael warmly reflected on his father-in-law, saying: "He was one of my closest friends. He would come to my gigs in the early days."
Lavish homeTalking about lavish living, Michael has raked in substantial wealth as a sought-after comic and television personality, furnishing his kin with plush abodes in Hampstead and Wiltshire. Michael really went to town on the property ladder in 2020, dropping a neat £10million on a London pad that features eight bedrooms, alongside a subterranean swimming pool, its own cinema, spa and gym facilities.
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