Michael McIntyre’s very rarely-seen sons Lucas and Oscar – and what he wishes he’d really named them
Michael McIntyre might be one of TV's most recognisable comedians, but the star likes to keep his family out of the spotlight. The Wheel presenter has two sons with his wife Kitty and while he keeps the teens' identities private, they have been the spark for some of his funniest stand-up jokes.
Lucas and Oscar are sometimes spotted with their famous dad watching Tottenham Hotspur or at cricket matches, but they don't appear to be living the celebrity life despite Michael's success. In one memorable joke, Michael, 48, admitted to the hilarious names he wished he'd called his kids - here's what we know about the star's family life.
Dad of two
Michael and his wife Kitty Ward have two sons, Lucas and Oscar, who are teenagers now but when they were small children, the comedian cracked plenty of jokes about them that were relatable to parents.
READ MORE:Miranda Hart reveals she split from her husband before his romantic proposal and surprise wedding
READ MORE:Miranda Hart's mystery husband 'appears' in video as he cooks her breakfast
In one stand-up routine, he joked about what he wished he'd called them instead, saying: "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.
"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."
He added: "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."
Back when Lucas and Oscar were very young, Michael 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."
In another of his famous parenting jokes, he said: "You never love your children more than when they’re unconscious, but still breathing."
But by the time the boys were teens, Michael admitted the joke was on him as he told the Mail on Sunday in 2020: "I have only done this Netflix 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."
Married life
Michael married Kitty in 2003, but he shared in his 2010 book Life and Laughing that he didn't make a good impression. He wrote: "She was the girl I had been looking for. In the romantic comedy that was my life, this would have made a good ending.
"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."
In an appearance on Desert Island Discs, Michael added that his family didn't make dating Kitty easy for him: "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, an aromatherapist, is no stranger to fame herself - she comes from an acting family including father Simon Ward and sister Sophie Ward.
After Simon died in 2012, Michael said of his father-in-law: "He was one of my closest friends. He would come to my gigs in the early days."
Luxury homes
Michael has made his fortune as an in-demand comedian and TV star, giving his family luxury homes in Hampstead and Wiltshire.
In 2020, he splashed out on a second home buying a London property for a cool £10million which boasts eight bedrooms, a swimming pool in the basement, a cinema, a spa and a gym.
