Criticism of Chris Pratt ‘so far from reality’: Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt
In a new interview, Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt responds to a series of social media controversies that led to her husband, Chris Pratt, being dubbed “the worst Chris in Hollywood.”
“I see what people say. But I just know that it’s so far from the reality,” Schwarzenegger Pratt, 33, told the New York Times. The interview focuses on her “picture-perfect life” as the wife of the affable “Guardians of the Galaxy” star — who somehow manages to rub some people the wrong way.
Schwarzenegger Pratt, also the author of self-help books and mother of two young daughters, grew up surrounded by fame as the daughter of action star-turned-politician Arnold Schwarzenegger and as a member of the Kennedy clan through her mother, Maria Shriver. But Schwarzenegger Pratt said she had to deal with a new level of fame when she began dating Pratt, 43, in 2018, soon after his divorce from Anna Faris.
Paparazzi showed up to their picnic dates, and suddenly, interviewers were asking her about her personal life, the New York Times reported. Before that, she said, “I wasn’t getting questions about my love life or who I was dating or anything like that.”
While Schwarzenegger Pratt said she tries to keep their family life private, and says their daily routine isn’t particularly glamorous, she laments that she and her husband have had to deal with some of the downsides of fame.
In October 2020, social media users declared that Pratt was the worst of all the men named Chris in Hollywood in an unofficial poll. Pratt became the red-hot focus of a cultural debate about his suspected conservative politics and religious beliefs. Things got even more heated when Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr., his “Avengers” franchise co-stars, jumped in to defend him, lecturing their millions of fans about how Pratt is really a good guy who is deserving of Christian charity, tolerance and consideration of what’s really important in the world right now.
At that point, Schwarzenegger Pratt also involved herself in the brouhaha by lamenting on Instagram: “There’s so much going on in the world, and people are struggling in so many ways. Being mean is so yesterday.”
More Pratt-related controversies have occasionally flared up on social media. In particular, Pratt caught some backlash in 2021 for sharing a loving message to his wife on Instagram. Among other things, Pratt thanked Schwarzenegger Pratt for giving birth to their “healthy daughter” Layla. Some people accused Pratt of covertly shading his first wife, Anna Faris, and being blatantly insensitive to their 9-year-old son, Jack, who was born prematurely and reportedly dealt with some health issues.
Pratt admitted to Men’s Health magazine in 2022 that this response made him cry. He said: “That is (expletive) up. My son’s gonna read that one day. He’s 9. And it’s etched in digital stone. It really (expletive) bothered me, dude. I cried about it.”
For her part, Schwarzenegger Pratt told the New York Times that she’s learned to resist the urge to respond to negative comments. “Growing up, hearing people say certain things about my parents, my siblings, my extended family” was difficult, she said. She also explained that her mother taught her to avoid the “never-ending” trap of trying to set the record straight.
