James Corden Reveals the Conversation with His Son That Led to His Departure from Late Night
James Corden is leaving as host of CBS’ “The Late Late Show” to spend more time with his family.
That’s an oft-repeated excuse for an individual who is failing at some endeavor and is perhaps in danger of being fired.
Not so with Corden. The 44-year-old actor, singer and comedian is on top, but in April he announced he will be bowing out of “The Late Late Show” after eight years to spend more time with his preteen son.
A check on his priorities occurred two years ago, he told Drew Barrymore on Tuesday. He was then working on “Mammals,” an Amazon Prime Video program.
“One day I was filming on a Sunday, and I came downstairs — this was about 6 a.m. — and my son, who was 10 at the time, we sat on the stairs, and he said, ‘Are you working today?’
“And I said, ‘I am.’ And he said, ‘But it’s Sunday.’ I said, ‘I know, buddy, but this schedule’s so all over the place — you just gotta get it done. You only have a tiny amount of time before we have to go back and do the [Late Late] show.’
“And his face just kind of dropped,” Corden said. “And I got in the car, and I called my wife Jules, and I said ‘I’ve realized, best case scenario — best case scenario — we have six more summers where Max is like, even remotely wants to be around us. And I cannot waste another one.”
Despite admitting he will “be a mess on that last show — I will cry my eyes out,” Corden said that when it comes to making a choice, children and family take priority.
“I will know in my core that the best thing for me and the best thing for us as a family is to put down some roots in London.”
Not just in show business, but in all kinds of occupations, homes are shipwrecked because parents put careers first.
Feminism, of course, has denigrated the time-honored role of mothers in guiding the household, but careers have also consumed fathers, prompting them to disregard their children, despite the long shadows — for good or for bad — they cast upon the lives of their sons and daughters.
And this is not about hours required to support a family, but about ambition and peer pressures driving parents from their homes.
Corden — with a successful career in show business — has an option to take a different path. And he’s doing it.
Asked by Barrymore how one knows when it’s time to walk away, Corden responded: “It’s not easy in any way to walk away from something that is so — I mean, I’ll never work in a better environment than the one I work in now.
“Nothing about leaving the show was to do with not enjoying it. I love it,” he said. “But the truth is it became a very easy decision because I always knew it was an adventure, and I never ever considered it to be the final destination.”
It’s refreshing to see a father step up and make what he sees as the best decision for his family. Well done, James Corden.
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