What you need to know
Kaitlin Olson talks about how her family is getting through her busy career.
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the 50-year-old actress and mother of a baby boy said that her husband, Rob McElhenny, who recently changed his name to Rob Mack, is “regaining some leeway at home” with her two sons, Leo, 13, and Axl, 15, while juggling multiple acting jobs.
“He’s really thriving at home,” she said. “He really enjoys it and embraces the parenting duties.”
Host Jimmy Kimmel, 57, jokingly asked Olson if it was “good for the kids” for McElhenney to host the show from home. The High Potential star replied: “Yeah, you know, it’s crazy, but they, all three of them, love it.”
The Hux actress went on to say that her husband has gotten “very creative” with the time he spends with their kids.
“The other day, I was coming home and having dinner, and the boys looked at me and said, ‘Mom, daddy dated Kim Kardashian before you?'” And I was like, ‘Okay, let’s go.’ Because he’s done it before,” she recalled, adding that when the boys were young, McElhenney convinced Olson that he wanted to give them complex names.
“And they were little boys. And they were like, ‘Why do you want to name us Jorharal and Jamortimar?'” she continued. “And I said, ‘No, that’s not true. Your father is a liar. Your father has been lying to you. And it went on for years.’
Olson said her four children in the family know McElhenny is “just a complete liar.” She added that she’s “doubling down” on the lie that he and Kardashian were engaged.
“He fills them with confusing thoughts, but I put them to bed. I won’t think about them for a while,” said the doting mother, referring to the Kardashian lies. “Two weeks later, this arrived in the mail.”
Kimmel held up a photo of McElhenney and Kardashian that looked as if it had been taken years ago.
“So what happened is that apparently my husband went into his office and told everyone this story, and his COO elf thought this was the best thing that ever happened and spent days and days and days at work creating this photo,” she explained. “She put this piece of paper in her bag and let it age for a week.”
“And behind the scenes, she concocted a pretense of being the marketing manager who wrote the memo to Rob,” she added. “She wrote it with her non-dominant hand, and I thought, ‘Why? They don’t know your handwriting.'”
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At another point in the conversation, Kimmel asked Olson if she planned to change her and her children’s names to just “Mac,” like her husband. “Oh, we’re all handcuffed to McElhenney and he’s holding us out on bail,” she said.
After Kimmel confirmed that he was Mack and the rest of his family was McElhenny, he asked if there had been any conversations about that decision.
“Listen, whatever makes him happy makes me happy,” she replied with a laugh.
Before filing to legally change his name to Rob Mack, the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star gave an interview to Variety last May, sharing that he was considering changing his name because it was difficult to pronounce.
At the time, Olson said the couple’s two children were not happy with the changes. “The kids are really not happy about that because they have that last name,” Olson said. “Legally, I do too!”
