Jon Hamm joked two years ago that if he ever had children, he would be the “old dad.” Now that the hypothetical has become real, he has a slightly more complicated description for how he feels.
The 55-year-old actor publicly addressed wife Anna Osceola’s pregnancy during a Sept. 22 appearance on Late Night, confirming that they are expecting their first child together and admitting that fatherhood has him feeling both thrilled and nervous.
“By turn, very excited and deeply terrified,” Hamm told Seth Meyers. “So, I think I’m doing it right.” EW and E! News both reported Hamm’s first public comments about the pregnancy.
The conversation quickly turned into a competition over who qualified as the older dad, with Hamm pointing out that he is beginning parenthood considerably later than the 52-year-old late-night host.
Osceola showed her baby bump publicly at the Sept. 14 Emmy Awards. They also complete a personal arc Hamm has discussed for years. He once had difficulty imagining marriage and children as part of his life, then began talking openly about wanting both as his relationship with Osceola changed how he pictured his future.
Hamm Says He’s ‘Very Excited and Deeply Terrified’
Meyers did not make Hamm wait long before addressing the pregnancy. He held up a photograph of Hamm and Osceola together at the Emmys, where her pregnancy was clearly visible. “Something’s happening here. What it is is exactly clear. We’re having a baby,” Hamm said.
Meyers joked that Osceola had arrived at the Emmys at an ideal point in the pregnancy for a red-carpet reveal. Hamm played along, saying he was not claiming she had planned it that way but acknowledging the “decent timing.”
Hamm said he alternated between excitement and being “deeply terrified,” a combination that sounded familiar to Meyers. “By the way, that doesn’t ever go away,” Meyers warned him, explaining that parenthood never reaches a point where every fear simply disappears. Hamm joked that perhaps a parent can finally relax once the child reaches 70. In his case, he calculated, “When I’m 152.”
Seth Meyers Welcomed Hamm to the ‘Old Dad’ Club
The pair also teased each other about becoming fathers later than some parents. Meyers described himself as a fellow “old dad,” but Hamm immediately rejected the comparison. “Dude, you’ve got nothing on me,” he told the host, prompting Meyers to joke that Hamm made him feel like a young father.
In 2024, Hamm said he hoped his marriage to Osceola would eventually “turn into kids.” He was 53 at the time and openly acknowledged what that would mean. “I will be the old dad, but so it goes,” he said, according to PEOPLE. “It could be a good thing. We’ll see.”
Two years later, that hypothetical situation is real. PEOPLE confirmed in August that Hamm and Osceola were expecting their first child together, and Osceola then made her first major public appearance since the news at the Sept. 14 Emmys.
The couple walked the carpet together, with Osceola wearing a black-and-white halter gown and resting a hand beneath her baby bump. Hamm attended as both the star and an executive producer of Apple TV’s Your Friends & Neighbors.
Hamm Says He’s Excited to ‘Start Our Own Family’
During a Sept. 23 TODAY interview, he said one piece of parenting advice had particularly stuck with him, people kept telling him that becoming a parent changes someone for the better.
“I’m very excited,” Hamm said. “I’ve been around kids my whole life. I’ve been a teacher, my nieces and nephews and all that stuff, so I’m excited to start our own family.” He again called the prospect both “thrilling” and “terrifying,” echoing what he had told Meyers the night before.
Hamm’s reference to teaching reaches back well before Mad Men made him famous. After college, he returned to John Burroughs School in St. Louis and taught acting before moving to Los Angeles to pursue his own career. His former students included future Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star Ellie Kemper.
The TODAY appearance was part of a press run for American Hostage, the MGM+ thriller in which Hamm plays Indianapolis radio journalist Fred Heckman during the real-life 1977 Tony Kiritsis hostage crisis.
The Television Academy notes that Hamm also executive produces the series, which grew out of the scripted podcast in which he previously played Heckman.
Fatherhood Wasn’t Always Part of Hamm’s Plan
In a 2010 interview, he said he liked children but also valued the freedom of being able to “close the door,” adding that becoming a parent represented an entirely different kind of life. Parade also quoted him at the time saying he did not feel he had a strong model for marriage because of his family history.
His thinking had shifted noticeably by 2022. During an appearance on Howard Stern, Hamm discussed therapy, losing his mother at a young age and learning to become more emotionally available.
He said that work had made his relationship with Osceola more meaningful and “opened up the possibility” of marriage, children and what he described as a new version of happiness and wellness.
Hamm’s parents divorced when he was young, and he has explained that he did not grow up with a lasting marriage he could use as a model. The uncertainty did not completely disappear when he decided to propose to Osceola.
Hamm later recalled being terrified before asking her to marry him, then realizing that the intensity of the feeling might be evidence that the decision mattered. They married in June 2023 at Anderson Canyon in Big Sur, the location where the Mad Men finale had been filmed.
Hamm and Osceola First Met on ‘Mad Men’
Hamm and Osceola first crossed paths while working on the 2015 series finale of Mad Men. Osceola played Clementine, a receptionist at the California retreat where Hamm’s Don Draper arrives during the show’s final chapter.
The two were not publicly linked as a couple until years later. They began dating in 2020 and later appeared together in the 2022 comedy Confess, Fletch.
They became engaged in 2023 and returned to Big Sur for their June wedding. EW confirmed that Anderson Canyon was the same location used for the Mad Men finale.
Their professional lives have continued to overlap. Osceola later joined Hamm on Your Friends & Neighbors, and Hamm joked that working together had practical benefits. They could bring their dog to work and save money on dog sitting.