His Hard Road to HAPPINESS
THE FRASIER VET SUFFERED FAMILY TRAGEDIES BEFORE FINDING TRUE LOVE
You might think that at 63, Kelsey Grammer would be exhausted from having three children under the age of 6 at home. But the opposite is true. “It’s fantastic — the energy is magnificent,” he gushed to Closer at the Israeli Consulate’s recent 70th Anniversary of Israel celebration in LA. “I’m as young as they are.”
Given the difficult times he’s been through in his life, it’s no surprise the Frasier star is reveling in his current bliss. “Kayte has a pristine and extraordinary ability to love,” he raves of his fourth wife, whom he wed in 2011 (they’ve renewed their vows since). “She loves being pregnant and being a mom.”
Kelsey’s equally psyched about being a father, especially now that he’s older. “When you reach a certain age, you don’t worry about your career the same way,” says the star, who had two kids with his third wife, Camille. Earlier in life, “your kids get a little lost in the shuffle, and you end up regretting it.”
Still, Kelsey has learned from his mistakes. “He becomes a better dad after every child,” daughter Mason, 16, told Closer at the recent Race to Erase MS Gala in LA. “When I grew up, he was very strict. Now he’s more relaxed with my younger siblings. It’s a blast!”
LOSS & FORGIVENESS
Family life has often been a source of heartbreak for Kelsey in the past. His father was murdered by intruders when Kelsey was a teenager, and two of his brothers died in a scuba-diving accident. In 1975, his younger sister Karen, 18, was killed by thieves who thought she’d witnessed their unsuccessful attempt at robbing a restaurant. “I was her big brother — I was supposed to protect her, and I could not,” Kelsey says. “I have never gotten over it. It very nearly destroyed me.”
Over time, “I have learned to forgive,” he says, but he has testified at parole hearings to keep her killers behind bars. “I accept that you live with remorse,” he told one of them. “But I live with tragedy every day.”
Playing Dr. Frasier Crane on Cheers and its spinoff proved therapeutic for Kelsey. “We really were like a family,” he says of his co-stars. “For 20 years, I was going to the same studio, so it was like going to graduate school at a favorite college.”
These days, he finds his greatest happiness at home. “My youngest son, James, is walking and talking and eating all the time,” he beams of his 1-year-old. “And my 4-yearold, Gabriel, is starting to figure out stuff. They discover things every day. It’s wonderful.” — Bruce Fretts,
with reporting by Lanae Brody