Legendary pro skater Tony Hawk is opening up about the palpable shift he experienced in his life after son Riley Hawk and daughter-in-law Frances Bean Cobain — the daughter of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love — welcomed baby boy Ronin in 2024.
“He has impacted my life in the sense that he takes priority,” Tony, 58, exclusively told Us on Saturday, November 14, while walking the red carpet at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards at Television Studio City in Los Angeles. “So if there’s a chance that we’re going to see him or have him overnight, I reschedule everything else.”
Hawk was officially awarded the title of “grandpa” in September 20204, after Riley, 33, and Frances, 34, welcomed Robin Walker Cobain Hawk to the fold.
“9.17.2024. Ronin Walker Cobain Hawk,” Frances wrote via Instagram on September 28, 2024, announcing her son’s birth. “Welcome to the world most beautiful son. We love you more than anything.”
“Firstly, just seeing my own son be a parent has been really gratifying and makes you proud on a level you never imagined,” Tony told Today.com in a July 2024 interview of his life as a then-new grandfather. “But in terms of being a grandparent, taking care of a grandchild has been such a blast.”
He added at the time, “This look of joy when he gets to our house because he knows that we’re at his beck and call, and he knows this is going to be fun.”
Hawk, a father of six — who shares Riley with ex-wife Cindy Dunbar, sons Spencer Hawk and Keegan Hawk with ex-wife Erin Lee, daughter Kadence Hawk with ex-wife Lhotse Merriam and is stepdad to wife Catherine Goodman’s two sons, Miles and Calvin — further revealed how fatherhood prepared him for grandpa life.
“We don’t freak out on the smallest setback or concern,” Tony said of his mindset as a grandparent. “We’ve been through it six times now and managed to raise decent humans.”
As the main priority in the professional skater’s life, it should come to the surprise of no one that Tony’s grandson is already showing an interest in his grandpa’s sport of choice.
“He does love riding a skateboard with me around the house,” Tony revealed. “Yes, we skate in the house — it’s real loud. And he recently did it on his own for a little bit, but he prefers when I’m the one holding him because we go faster.”
In the wake of the athlete’s official retirement from competitive skateboarding in 2003, the athlete opened up to Us about how important his family was, is and remains.
“I mean, we have six kids tidal – and they’re all out of the house,” Tony dished. “But they all keep coming back, and we’re thankful when they do.”
