Jamie Oliver has opened up about his dad struggles and says he was swiftly cast aside the minute his kids turn into teenagers.
The celebrity chef also offered a worrying health update as he revealed his wife Jools has been suffering with long Covid for the past two years.
The pair are parents to Poppy, 20, Daisy, 19, Petal 13, Buddy 11 and six-year-old River.
The 47-year-old is hoping his two boys stay with him for longer after saying he lost his three girls as soon as they turned 13.
Jamie says their mum Jools' condition is 'deeply scary' - and explained that doctors are struggling to find a solution to it.
He says the family are coping with it as he candidly spoke about the difficulties of being a dad.
"I haven't done teenage boys yet but I found teenage girls very hard - I tried to be an on-point dad, I'd give myself nine out of ten for effort," he said when speaking to Mail Plus.
"Then the minute they get to 13, you're dumped. You're outside looking in.
"All you want is a few hugs a day and to be appreciated but there's a lot of chemistry going on - you never get the kid back after 13, they completely change."
Jamie then called the day the children head off to university 'a bereavement.'
He also said he believes his kid's lives were made more challenging by having a famous father.
Jamie has bemoaned that the medical profession don't know how to cure long Covid despite 1.8 million Britons saying that the are suffering, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.
The TV chef and his ex-model partner, both 47, have been together since they were teens and tied the knot in July 2000.
But their long marriage hasn't always been as blissful as it appears today, with suspicions of cheating, business woes and jealousy problems plaguing the couple, who managed to overcome every obstacle.
Jools once told Grazia : "We bicker all the time. A lot of my friends can’t believe how much.
"He drives me mad because he never listens to me and I drive him mad because I can be horribly selfish."
And while Jamie has maintained he would never cheat on Jools, that did not stop his wife from having her suspicions.
In 2011 she admitted to the Telegraph that she snoops on him.
Jules said: "I'll check his email. I'll check his Twitter. I'll check his phone. Everything seems fine.
"He says I'm a jealous girl, but I think I'm fairly laidback, considering."
That same year Jamie admitted that they were stuck in a rut, saying that "marriage isn't easy".