While chef Gordon Ramsay is known for sharp criticism and cutting remarks, the father of five reveals his softer side when it comes to his family.
“I think that everyone’s got a good side and a bad side in them,” Ramsay told PEOPLE. “I’m just very good at highlighting the bad that turned into something incredible.”
“The kids have brought the most emotion out of me,” he added. “It’s funny, isn’t it?… Tana’s super fierce, an ex-Montessori school teacher. So I’m the softie.”
Ramsay shares five children with wife Tana: Megan, 25, twins Jack and Holly, 23, Matilda, 21, and Oscar, 4.
While the chef’s global empire—4 prime-time shows, 77 restaurants worldwide, 7 Michelin stars and 33 books—keeps him busy, Ramsay always makes time for his family and keeps his role as a father in the front of his mind.
“My job as a dad is to come up with a solution to their problems. That’s the most important role of a dad,” he said. “But boy, that’s…hard with five kids, five problems, 25 a week, a hundred a month—that’s a lot of solution fixing.”
While his children can be difficult sometimes, Ramsay is incredibly proud of his “amazing” kids and how they impact the world.
“Jack’s a Royal Marine commando, off defending the country in some of the most extreme conditions,” Ramsay gushed. “Megan’s an incredible police officer. Holly’s gone into fashion. Tilly’s studying at university for her degree. Tana and I came from a family with no degrees.”
Ramsay also opened up about how their son Rocky died when Tana was 20 weeks pregnant with him in 2016.
“There’s no book that guides you through that loss, and so losing Rocky was really tough. Watching the trauma unfold, it’s this life-changing moment,” he shared.
“We wouldn’t have had Oscar had we not lost Rocky. There was no substitute — far from it — but it brought us a bond that you’d never experience in a normal situation,” he added.
Ramsay’s care for his family is evident, though he didn’t learn this from his own family. Growing up in an abusive home, Ramsay learned what not to do as a father.
“Growing up, I never had a father figure. Everything I was witnessing at the time was from an alcoholic father, so I knew I had to take the opposites,” he said. “From that, there was the pressure to get out of the environment [I was] in.”
For someone known for being fiery and harsh, it is incredible to see the care he holds for his family, especially because he was given the opposite example growing up.
He frequently shares photos of Oscar on social media. In a recent post, he shared a photo of his son in his school uniform.
“Off he goes! FYI the blazer didn’t last long,” Ramsay wrote.
Movieguide® previously reported:
Gordon Ramsay’s 4-year-old son may be following in the footsteps of his father, according to a recent Instagram post.
Ramsay took to his Instagram account on June 28 to share a video of his son Oscar, age 4, making pancakes with his older sister Tilly who is 21.
“Gordon Ramsay’s son Oscar may have just turned four, but the physical similarities between him and his father are already uncanny,” the article stated. “Not only does Oscar look just like his celebrity chef father, but he may have picked up on some other traits as well. An Instagram account for Oscar, which is run by his sisters Tilly and Holly, shows one photo of the four-year-old glaring into the refrigerator for a potential snack. The hilarious caption for the photo reads, “Always looking for food.”