Ricky Gervais said he’ll never have kids and explained why in the funniest way possible

Being child-free is a popular choice among couples worldwide, but when the late Bishop of Rome, Pope Francis, threw a jab at couples choosing "pets over children," calling them "selfish," comedian Ricky Gervais chimed in to reveal why he never intends to have children. Gervais and his long-term partner Jane Fallon, who met at university, have been together since 1982. The couple had always decided never to have children, per the Lad Bible.

In January 2022, during the promotions for the final season of his Netflix show 'Afterlife' on a Radio Times podcast, he addressed Pope Francis's comments claiming "having pets over children is selfish." The Office creator did not agree with the late bishop's remarks and shared his insights on remaining child-free. "How can not having children be selfish?" Gervais asked. He added, "It doesn't make any sense. How can it be selfish not to bring something into the world that doesn't exist on any level? There is not a big line, or a cage, of unborn foetuses going, 'We want to be born!' I don't have kids for many reasons, but one is that there is enough. No one is going, 'Gervais isn't having kids! We're going to run out soon.'"

Earlier during DeGeneres's 'The Ellen Show,' the comedian shared that he'd be more worried for a child's safety. "I'd worry sick about a baby. I have a cat and I worry about that. I check the door three times before I go out. I put food and water in every room in case the door closes and he's peckish for 20 minutes," he said. Funnily, Gervais' partner Jane was worried about her partner having a change of heart. "I was so convinced of my decision that I couldn't even imagine the alternative. It turned out he had been having the same anxiety about me. Cue much relief and celebration," she told Marie Claire in 2014.

A 2017 study by the European Journal of Population noted that men and women aged 35 and older who once thought about having children but eventually gave up found several reasons behind their shift toward a child-free life. The participants in the study described a gradual adaptation to a child-free lifestyle, where the freedom, stability, and routines they built over time made the idea of parenting feel less necessary. Other participants experienced a lack of interest, often due to barriers such as financial strain, difficulty finding a suitable partner, career pressures, or fertility-related challenges. Many, today, believe that the environment we're living in isn't suited for new life, and that we might first work towards building a sustainable, more equal world order before thrusting children into our own broken system. When put this way, it seems that having children needs more thought than remaining child-free, since you're responsible for bringing a whole new life into what is a very polluted, fragmented, and unstable ecosystem.

More on Scoop Upworthy

Boss sends everyone home but forces woman to work late because she 'doesn't have kids'

Woman stops accepting invites after family continues to 'dump' kids on her at gatherings

Millennial man says society treats him differently for choosing not to have kids in his 30s