GROWING BOLDER WITH

GROWING BOLDER WITH

John

Stamos

57

Jackie Carlin

For someone long known as a father figure, thanks to his longrunning role as Uncle Jesse on “Full House” and its recent reboot as “Fuller House” on Netflix, it took John Stamos a long time to hit what he calls “the jackpot” – fatherhood.

Stamos always wanted to be a father. He said he just had trouble finding the right woman. That changed several years ago when he met and married model and actress Caitlin McHugh. Now they are the proud parents of 3-yearold William (Billy) Christopher Stamos, named after John’s father.

Stamos said he’s always taken care of his health, but fatherhood has inspired him to slow down and really make sure he’s making the right health and lifestyle decisions.

“I drink the blood of Rob Lowe, that helps,” he said jokingly to Growing Bolder. “Beyond my diet, I do exercise quite a bit. Also, the heart is important to take care of, and I don't just mean with eating nutritiously. I [try] being a good person because the world -- it has changed quite a bit and gotten a little darker. So, put the love out, that's it, put the love out.”

Music also keeps him active and engaged. This summer, Stamos is joining his longtime friends, The Beach Boys, on the road. That included his high-profile performance of “Wouldn’t It Be Nice?” on CNN’s “Fourth in America Special.”

“Boy, did people miss live music!” Stamos said. “That's another exercise that I do because it's two-and-a-half hours on stage. Mike Love just turned 80, and he buries the rest of us on stage. I'm not kidding. He's mad if we try to cut the set, ‘No, no, no. We got to do two-and-a-half hours.’”

With a new role on the Disney+ series “Big Shots,” and a new passion for life, Stamos said the best is yet to come. He said like most of us, he learned some valuable lessons from the pandemic.

“Things that we thought were so important really aren't, at the end of the day. The silver lining was that I got to spend so much time with my son the last year and a half, which I probably wouldn't be able to do. Also, we have no control. We never had control really, that's the thing that I learned. What we can control is love and being there for other people.”

Rodin Eckenroth / Stringer via Getty Images