Actor Patrick Dempsey, recently named PEOPLE’s “Sexiest Man Alive,” opened up about parenting teenagers and how his kids impact his life for the better.
He admitted he’s “much better about being patient than I was in the past.”
“I mean that was the biggest challenge for me, dealing with the noise and the clutter but I’m a lot more tolerant now,” he told PEOPLE.
Dempsey shares daughter Talula, 21, and 16-year-old twin sons Sullivan and Darby with his wife Jillian. As his kids have grown, he’s faced new challenges as a father.
“You need to be around, but they don’t want you around because they’re fighting for their independence, which they should,” he explained. “They need to find out how they interact in the world, they need to learn those boundaries, they need to make mistakes. And you need to be there for them and allow them to learn from that.”
The actor said that more than anything, his twin boys help keep him young.
“I have teenage boys who keep me very active, and I need to stay in shape to keep up with them. So, they’re on me about my diet, about am I training enough, am I working hard enough,” Dempsey explained. “They’re very good for me and I appreciate that, and they challenge me. And you just want to stay active.”
“The older you get, the more work you have to put in just starting at the baseline you had when you were in your 20s. And psychologically it’s really good for you and I want to be active, I want to be able to move around,” he added.
Dempsey plans to use his new title to promote The Dempsey Center, an organization he created to help families battling cancer after his own mother lost her battle with ovarian cancer in 2014.
“We help people who have been impacted by cancer. We don’t treat the disease, we treat the person and entire family at no cost in what is called wraparound care,” he explained.
Dempsey is best known for his role as Dr. Derek Shepherd in the long-running drama GREY’S ANATOMY, which he starred in for 11 seasons.
