Henshall: I worried I was too old to be dad at 51
WHEN Scottish actor Douglas Henshall got married in an impromptu ceremony on holiday in Las Vegas six years ago, fatherhood was the last thing on his mind.
But some gentle persuasion from his Croatian playwright wife Tena Stivicic proved to be a game changer.
Despite fearing that late fatherhood is irresponsible, the 51-year-old Shetland star became a father after Miss Stivicic, 39, gave birth to their daughter Grace late last year.
Henshall, originally from Barrhead, Renfrewshire, said: ‘I was never interested in being married or having children and now I’m married with a small daughter.
‘My wife was keen to have a child and I thought, “Well okay, let’s give it a bash”.
‘I was worried. You look at Mick Jagger having another kid at 73 and I was worried because I don’t think that’s responsible.
‘My daughter is going to get people saying, “Is that your grandpa coming to pick you up?” But I will be less selfish and I’ll be able to help her a lot more than I would have if I had been a younger man.’
The star, who plays Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez in the BBC One crime drama, said he was ‘besotted’ with Grace but in a light-hearted aside described her as a ‘dreadful house guest’. In an interview on BBC Radio Scotland he joked: ‘All she does is keep us up all night puking and crying.’
Henshall is about to start filming the fourth series of Shetland, partly set in Norway.