The Bridget Jones actor and father of three has admitted he – gasp! – sometimes hates other people’s children.

“I don’t always love kids,” he says. “Sometimes I absolutely loathe them.

"Children are just people who haven’t lived very long yet. I’m predisposed to be affectionate if someone’s smaller but if they’re loathsome in the first five minutes, they’re loathsome.”

But it’s not surprising that Firth, 47, is back to his swoonsomely charming self when rhapsodising about his own brood – he has two boys, Luca, seven, and Matteo, five, with film producer wife Livia Giuggioli and a son William, nearly 18, with American actress Meg Tilly.

“However much you want to b***** off and be alone, it’s not long before you start to miss your children,” he tells eve magazine.

“After just a couple of hours I’m longing to see them at the end of every day.”