Seth Rogen is eager to extol the virtues of a child-free life and marriage.
In an appearance on “The Diary of a CEO” podcast this week, the “Pineapple Express” and “Knocked Up” star reflected on the trajectory of his career in Hollywood. At one point in the chat, host Steven Bartlett pointed out that the actor and his wife, Lauren Miller, do not have children.
“That has helped me succeed as well, definitely,” said Rogen, noting that his decision has afforded him more time and energy to focus on creative output. “There’s a whole huge thing I’m not doing, which is raising children.”
Rogen added that he didn’t think having children would make him a happier person.
“A lot of people have kids before they even think about it, from what I’ve seen, honestly,” he said. “You just are told: ‘You go through life, you get married, you have kids’ ― that’s what happens. And me and my wife, neither of us were like that. Honestly, the older we get, the more happy and reaffirmed we are with our choice to not have kids.”
The actor said he and Miller are able to “understand ourselves more than we ever have” with the freedom of only having to worry about one another.
“We have the capacity to achieve a level of work and a level of communication and care for one another, and a lifestyle we can live with one another that we’ve never been able to live before,” he explained. “And we can just do that, and we don’t have to raise a child, which the world does not need right now.”
Rogen and Miller, a fellow actor and comedian, were married in Sonoma, California, in October 2011. They were introduced at a birthday party in 2004 and began dating shortly thereafter.
“This was before ‘The 40-Year-Old Virgin,’ and I had no idea who he was,” Miller recalled to Vulture in 2012. “And I was really shy around guys, but he was also awkward and weird around girls.”
Though his parents told Us Weekly in 2019 that they were “waiting” for grandchildren from the pair, Rogen has previously expressed his lack of interest in parenthood.
“I don’t know anybody who gets as much happiness out of their kids as we get out of our non-kids,” Rogen told Howard Stern in 2021. “We’re laying in bed on Saturday mornings. smoking weed, watching movies naked. If we had kids, we could not be fucking doing this.”
As for Miller, he added: “I would say she wants kids less than I do.”