Food fight! Jimmy Kimmel had a tense exchange with his 5-year-old daughter, Jane, over pancakes earlier this week. He described the argument on a recent episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which has been temporarily rebranded as Jimmy Kimmel Live From His House amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“We have a very picky 5-year-old daughter who last night decided she no longer eats corn,” the host, 52, quipped in a portion of his monologue shared on Instagram. “So this morning she refused to eat her pancakes because I made them with a new mix.”
After explaining that he used a new, “healthy” mix because they stopped making the one Jane preferred, the ABC personality revealed that he whipped up a batch of pancakes for breakfast and a meltdown ensued.
“I made the pancake in the shape of a butterfly, which she loves, [I used] syrup, it was perfect, and of course she hated it. She refused to eat it,” he said of his youngest daughter. “She took one bite and she said, ‘It tastes like it has seeds in it.’”
While the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? host said he told Jane the mix was seedless, even though he later found out it did, in fact, have seeds, the disagreement resulted in an “hour-long standoff” between the father-daughter duo.
“I’m like, ‘Eat the pancakes, you love pancakes,’” he recalled.
To that, Jane replied: “No I don’t … these are disgusting!”
Kimmel added that the argument, which he likened to a “hostage situation,” went on and on before any signs of resolution. “I think she was expecting me to give in and just go to work, but I don’t go to work anymore,” he quipped. “I just wake up and I’m at work. I don’t go anywhere, so I don’t give in.”
After revealing that his daughter “had no idea what she was up against,” the Brooklyn native said he “dug in” and continued arguing with the little one.
“It was terrible. There were tears, there was a tantrum, there were hysterics, she also cried,” he joked. “But in the end I won and she ate the pancake.”
The comedian concluded the story by declaring that people must stick to their guns. “You don’t want your kids to grow up thinking they could throw a fit and then get whatever they want,” he said. “You do that and the next thing you know, they’re at the White House telling people to drink Clorox and a bunch of doctors are behind them, nodding.”
Aside from preparing breakfast for Jane and her younger brother Billy, 2, Kimmel is also a dinner expert. He shared the pasta recipe he “always” makes for his youngest children last month, calling it “one of few things my kids eat.”
The Win Ben Stein’s Money alum also has two older children, Katie, 29, and Kevin, 26, from his first marriage to Gina Kimmel.
