Gordon Ramsay is used to the high life – both literally and figuratively – but it sounds like his children aren’t.
In resurfaced comments from 2021, the 58-year-old celebrity chef and dad-of-six revealed that he makes his kids fly coach while he’s in first-class.
He told The Sun: “When it comes to holidays, I told them: ‘Don’t you dare waste that f***ing money flying first-class from here to New York.'
“When they ask if they can pop up to us for some nice food, we say ‘No you f***ing can’t’, so now they take their own picnics on board, and they’re absolutely fine in economy.
“I mean, what 14 year old needs to sit in a reclining chair?”
Gordon and his wife, Cayetana ‘Tana’ Hutcheson, have Megan Jane Ramsay, 27, twins Jack Scott Ramsay and Holly Anna Ramsay, both 25, Matilda ‘Tilly’ Ramsay, 23, Oscar Ramsay, six, and Jesse James Ramsay, one.
Throughout their childhoods, they’ve made sure to raise their kids to be “seriously grounded and motivated”, with Gordon adding: “The kids use the London Underground… and when we trained for the marathon and enlisted a trainer, we didn’t give them access – you don’t need a PT when you’re 18.”
It’s not the first time the Hell’s Kitchen star has revealed the boundaries he sets for his children, telling the Telegraph in 2017: “They don’t sit with us in first-class. They haven’t worked anywhere near hard enough to afford that.
“At that age, at that size, you’re telling me they need to sit in first-class? No, they do not. We’re really strict on that.”
On his children’s inheritance, Gordon added: “It’s definitely not going to them, and that’s not in a mean way; it’s to not spoil them.
“The only thing I’ve agreed with Tana is they get a 25 per cent deposit on a flat, but not the whole flat.”
Social media users are divided on Gordon’s approach to parenthood, with one simply responding to the news: “As he should.”
While another flatly stated: “There is a fine line between disciplining your kids and being mean to them. He is just mean. He shouldn't have made them if not willing to share his lavish life with them.”
But Gordon isn’t the only celebrity to say they don’t let their children fly first-class with them.
In 2023, it was revealed Robbie Williams and wife Ayda Field do the same, with the latter telling The Sunday Times: “My kids fly economy whenever we fly. I turn left and they turn right. That’s terrible. I mean, people will think I’m such a d**k.
“There’s no interest in raising brats. My kids will know [economy] is where they will sit in a plane until they can pay to put themselves in a different part of the plane.”
What do you think?