Carson Daly is using his voice to help his kids.
The former Total Request Live host detailed the advice he gives his 16-year-old son Jackson, who has started following in his footsteps with onscreen appearances like his interview with Blake Shelton on Nightly News With Lester Holt: Kids Edition in 2023. “I just try to be there for him and offer him—if he needs anything, he knows he can turn to me,” Carson exclusively told E! News at Project Healthy Minds’ third annual World Mental Health Day Gala in New York City Oct. 9. “But I found, with my dad, the best thing my dad ever said was just by what he did—by example.”
The Voice host—who is also dad to daughters Etta, 13, London, 11, and Goldie, 5, with wife Siri Daly—added, “I think he keeps an eye on what I do [and] I bring him to events like tonight.”
But if Jackson—who also interviewed golfer Scottie Scheffler in March—ultimately pursues his own path that isn’t featured onscreen, Carson would be supportive of that, as well. “I wish the best for him wherever his happiness leads him,” he continued. “That’s what I want for him.”
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Indeed, Carson has been a longtime advocate for mental health and has been vocal about instilling a focus on wellbeing in his kids. “Their whole lives, they know two types [of health], there’s physical health and mental health,” he told People last October. “If you hurt your wrist at school, you go to the doctor. And if you’re feeling sad and you really don’t know why or if there’s something going on in your mind, you’re having a hard time grappling with, you talk to somebody about that too.”
In fact, the 52-year-old treats his kids like adults because he knows they can handle it.
“I’ve always talked to them like they were 30 years old,” Carson continued. “I’ve always intellectually given them the benefit of the doubt to rise the intellectual occasion when I’m kind of kicking the knowledge and I do it a lot.”
And his relationship with his wife Siri isn’t off limits either, adding of his weekly couples therapy, “‘Marriage is hard. This helps mom and dad out.’ That’s how I talk to my kids.”
