Things You Might Not Know About Hugh Grant

Published on September 8, 2016. Updated September 9, 2020

Hugh Grant is the kind of star in Hollywood that can do no wrong in the eyes of fans. For the most part, he is just as charming off-screen as he is on-screen and has been a blockbuster dynamo for several decades. Much of his life has been dragged through the media from his successes to his scandals, but nothing seems to get the talented star down. Despite a lot of media attention, there are still a lot of things to know about the life and times of Hugh Grant! Check it out:

10. Getting His Start

It seems Hugh Grant has been a star forever, but like all Hollywood superstars, he had to get his start somewhere. After many small and mostly unimportant acting parts, Grant started his own comedy group called The Jockeys of Norfolk with a couple of friends. They began touring London’s pubs and, although things started off rocky for the group, they were a hit at the Edinburgh Festival, and earned them a spot on the BBC2 show Edinburgh Nights. In 1987, Grant landed his first leading film role in the drama Maurice. After more roles and no big break, Grant was about to give up acting at 32 when he got the starring role in the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral which earned Grant his first and only Golden Globe award, and essentially launched his mainstream career.

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9. Early Life

Hugh John Mungo Grant was born on September 9, 1960 at Charing Cross Hospital in London to Flynvola Susan MacLean and Captain James Murray Grant. Hugh’s father served with the Seaforth Highlanders and ran a carpet firm and his mother was a schoolteacher who taught Latin, French and Music for over 30 years. Hugh had one older brother, James, and said he spent his summers as a child shooting and hunting with his grandfather in Scotland. His mother died in July 2001 at the age of 65, 18 months after she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

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8. Net Worth

It is incredible to think that at 32 years old and after almost a decade of trying to break into acting, Hugh Grant was thinking of giving up on acting as a career, but he is now he is worth $80 million! After the hit of Four Weddings and a Funeral, you would be hard pressed to find a film that required an awkward yet charming British actor and not see Grant as the lead. He now has 59 acting credits to his name with many romantic comedy hits including Sense and Sensibility, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Two Weeks Notice and Love Actually, just to name a few. Grant went from getting paid $40,000 for his role in Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994 to pulling in $12.5 million for Two Weeks Notice in 2002!

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7. First Jobs

After appearing in the Oxford University Film Foundation’s production of Privileged, Grant began taking on all kinds of odd jobs. He worked as an assistant groundskeeper at Fulham Football Club, tutored, wrote comedy sketches for TV shows, and was also hired on to write and produce radio commercials for many different products.

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6. Education

When he was young, Grant bounced around schools starting with attending Hogarth Primary School, then St. Peter’s Primary School and then Wetherby Prep School. From 9 years old until he was 18, he attended the Latymer Upper School on a scholarship and even represented his school on the quiz show Top of the Form. In his final year he won a scholarship to attend New College, Oxford and he ended up graduating with a degree in English Literature, while also starring in his first film, Privileged. From there he received an offer to pursue a PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art, but did not take the offer, and ended up joining the Oxford University Dramatic Society where his focus on acting took shape.

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5. Missed Role

It seems that Hugh Grant gets any role he wants, and fans are just fine with that, but there is one he missed out on that really could have been great. As it turns out Grant was actually the first actor cast to play the part of Gilderoy Lockhart in the second Harry Potter film, and he accepted the part! Unfortunately, he had to leave the film due to scheduling conflicts with other films. Understandably, the early 2000s were a very busy time for the actor, but many would have loved to see him in the role.

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4. The Arrest

Grant has always been one of those stars that never gets dragged down or has his career suffer even when he is involved in a scandal, and that is evident through his June 1995 arrest. Grant was arrested in Los Angeles near Sunset Boulevard for engaging in a sexual activity in a public place with known Hollywood prostitute Divine Brown. As a result, Grant was placed on two years’ summary probation, paid a $1,180 fine and had to complete an AIDS education program. Despite the incident, Grant’s girlfriend, Elizabeth Hurley, stuck by him for another five years, and Grant was even praised for not making excuses for his actions which all occurred right before the press tour started for his film, Nine Months.

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3. Personal Life

Grant has had a very active romantic life over the years. In 1987, he met actress Elizabeth Hurley and the two began a relationship. Even though Grant cheated on Hurley, she stayed, and never spoke ill of him, and the two were together for 13 years before splitting amicably in 2000. Two years later when Hurley welcomed her son, Damian, she named Grant as his godfather. Grant then began dating heiress Jemima Khan and the two were together for three years before calling it quits in 2007. At 52 years old, Grant became a father for the first time when Tinglan Hong with whom he had a “fleeting affair” gave birth to their daughter Xiao Xi in September 2011. The following year he welcomed his second child, son John Mungo Grant, with Swedish TV producer Anna Eberstein. He then got back together with Hong, and the pair welcomed Grant’s third child Felix Grant in 2013. Grant then got back together with Eberstein and they welcomed their second child, and Grant’s fourth in four years in December 2015. The pair then welcomed their third child and Grant’s fifth in early 2018 before they finally married on May 25, 2018.

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2. Athlete

It might be surprising to learn that before his acting career, the Four Weddings and a Funeral star was actually quite the athlete. He played both rugby and soccer, and even now describes himself as a “golfing addict.” But those aren’t the only sports he plays! He also plays cricket, tennis and snooker.

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1. Monogamy

If you followed his romantic life, it isn’t surprising at all that Grant is not a big believer in being faithful or monogamous in relationships, and after all his scandals, he really opened up about it in an interview in 2016. “I can see the lovely aspect if you marry exactly the right person – your best friend and it’s cozy and lovely,” the never-married star said. “Do I think human beings are meant to be in 40-year-long monogamous, faithful relationships? No, no, no […] I think there is something unromantic about marriage. You’re closing yourself off.” He added, “I always admire the French and the Italians who are very devoted to their marriages. They take them extremely seriously, but it is understood that there might be other visitors at 5 o’clock in the afternoon. You just never boast about [it]. They never say anything, but that’s what keeps marriages together.” Of course, that didn’t stop him from marrying Anna Eberstein in 2018.