Joshua Jackson Gets Candid About Fatherhood on Emmys Red Carpet: ‘Priorities Change'

Joshua Jackson is a proud Girl Dad whose little girl has changed the way he thinks about his career and future job opportunities. The actor walked the Emmys red carpet before being shuffled inside the Peacock Theater, and he spoke to Access Hollywood about why his role on Doctor Odyssey has been such a great fit.

“I have a beautiful 4-year-old girl, and she’s starting school, so a big consideration of what I was doing [for work] is ‘I need to be here so I can be Daddy,'” Jackson said. His character may be miles from shore on a luxury cruise ship, but he wanted a job that would keep him close to home and let him be a parent.

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” … And so the show clears me — every morning I get to take her to school before I go to work, so I get to have a little bit of real life,” he said. “It’s just funny as life goes on, priorities change.”

Joshua Jackson at BAFTA North America's TV Tea Party held at The Maybourne Beverly Hills on September 14, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Chad Salvador/Variety via Getty Images)
Joshua Jackson at BAFTA North America’s TV Tea Party held at The Maybourne Beverly Hills on September 14, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California.

The Dawson’s Creek alum — who shares 4-year-old Juno with ex Jodie Turner-Smith — also divulged the “magic sauce” for life not turning south in your 40s while speaking with Laverne Cox for E! News on the carpet.

“Life is good,” he said. “I think that’s the magic sauce. I love my life. I love what I do for a living. I’ve got a beautiful little girl. There’s not much to complain about.”

Earlier this month, the “nepo baby” posted a photo on Instagram of himself wearing a pipe cleaner necklace with an array of colorful beads.

“…I wanted to share the story of that photo,” he wrote in his caption. “This morning after breakfast I told my daughter I was going to go do some yard work. She asked if she could come with me, which is of course a yes.”

“…We were just about to step outside when she said, ‘Daddy, I think inside play is what I need right now’… So I leave her with her granny and go do my dad therapy in the yard,” he continued. “And when I come back in, she presents me with this necklace. And tells me, ‘Dada, I wanted to stay inside so I could make you a necklace.’”

And if you think that’s where the cuteness ends, just wait!

“I asked her to take a photo of me in the necklace and while she was snapping the photos she says, ‘it’s good for you to have a photo so you can always remember that I love you,'” he wrote.

TOLD YA! Told ya it would get even cuter!

“So this is the exact moment my heart was melted by this amazing little big girl for the bajilionth time.”

His heart melted, his priorities changed, and he got one more ingredient for that magic sauce: a beaded pipe cleaner necklace that didn’t make it to the Emmys but most definitely has a place of pride in his closet.

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