Barry Keoghan Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Barry Keoghan has been honest about life as a father since welcoming son Brando with ex-girlfriend Alyson Sandro in August 2022.
The actor became a dad while filming the 2023 hit movie Saltburn. During a January 2024 interview with GQ, Keoghan recalled getting “a day off” for Brando’s birth.
“Good on them! Day off, and straight on to night shoots and night feedings — boom!” the Irish actor said at the time. “You see me tired. Yeah. Brando. Good ol’ Brando.”
Keoghan and Sandro met in February 2021 and started dating shortly thereafter. The pair went Instagram official in July of that year before becoming parents nearly a year later. Their split was reported in July 2023, but Keoghan has no hard feelings toward his ex.
Like father, like son! Barry Keoghan shared a rare photo of his son, Brando, 2, as the pair spent some quality time together over the weekend. “He’s more of a charmer than i am. Our wee Brando ☘️🏴,” Keoghan, 31, captioned a selfie shared via Instagram on Sunday, August 18. The Saltburn star, who shares […]
“She’s done a great job and she’s an incredible mother,” Keoghan said during the same GQ interview, before explaining how becoming a dad has changed his life.
“I feel a responsibility. I feel an enormous amount of pressure, which is good. And I can’t get the little boy off my mind. It’s beautiful,” he said. “It’s crazy, but when he looks at you, you feel like the most important person in the world. That’s the effect he has on me.”
Keep scrolling to read Keoghan’s sweetest quotes about son Brando:
Acting in Brando’s Future?
The actor doesn’t plan to have his son follow in his footsteps.
“If he did want to become an actor, you know, I’m there for it,” he told PopSugar in October 2022. “You don’t want to brainwash them into doing something that they don’t want to do.I think it’s exciting to see where he ventures.”
Changing His Life
Keoghan called fatherhood “breathtaking” in a December 2022 interview with Flaunt magazine.
“It’s completely changed my outlook. I mean that. And you don’t really get that until you have your wee little one,” he said. “I mean, you literally can’t be selfish, and you kind of forget to do things, like look after yourself.”
What’s In a Name?
Yes, Keoghan named his son after the legendary actor Marlon Brando.
“Brando Keoghan. Imagine that, for a name! I set him up,” Keoghan said during his January 2024 GQ profile. “I obviously love Marlon Brando, but I just, yeah — for a first name I thought it was quite cool.”
Keoghan said that there’s no doubt his son will “live up” to his name, “He has to have that leather jacket and that rock-star attitude, you know what I mean?” the actor continued. “He’ll have a motorbike when he’s 12, I think.”
His Relationship With Brando
The Irish star admittedly “didn’t have a father figure growing up,” which has influenced his own “father-son relationship” with Brando.
“I don’t have that figure to draw experience from and to base it on,” he told Entertainment Weekly in September 2024. “Love, you don’t need anything to draw from, love is pure, and so I’m not on about that, but I’m on about little stuff like teaching your son this or teaching your daughter that.”
All eyes are on Barry Keoghan on and off screen. While the Irish actor has nabbed various roles since his 2011 debut, he became a household name after starring in Marvel’s 2021 Eternals. The following year, Keoghan proved his star power with an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination after playing Dominic Kearney in […]
Beating the Accusations
Keoghan addressed social media critics who have accused him of being a “deadbeat dad” while appearing on the “The Louis Theroux Podcast” in September 2024.
“There’s a lot online. If I didn’t have tough skin or the strength, I wouldn’t be sitting here,” the actor said. “Of course, [his childhood is] going to affect me being a father when I had no blueprint to take from. People just read that [as] laziness and go, ‘Oh, that’s no excuse to be an absent father.’ I’m not an absent father.”
Showing Brando on Social Media
Since his fame has continued to rise, Keoghan has decided to “stop” posting about Brando online.
“People love to use my son as ammunition or whatever,” he said on the same podcast episode. “I don’t think it’s fair to put my child online. And because I reigned that in, people draw a narrative and go, ‘Absent father, s—, deadbeat dad,’ and more disgusting things I wouldn’t even repeat. Just the audacity of some people, man. It sickens me, makes me furious.”
