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Michael Chiklis is excited to become a grandfather!
The Fantastic Four alum, 62, chatted with PEOPLE at the Rape Treatment Center and Stuart House Annual Brunch on Sunday, Oct. 26, at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, where he opened up about his impending status as a first-time grandfather. Chiklis, whose daughter Autumn, 31, is pregnant with her first baby, says it’s “the most exciting thing in the world.”
“Just excited. It’s the most exciting thing in the world,” he tells PEOPLE. “I look at my life like a book. Each chapter is more compelling and wonderful than the last.”
“I think that some people sort of bemoan what’s past, and I’m always looking forward in what’s next,” he adds. “And to me, the idea of — I’m getting emotional just talking about it because look, you say grandparents and you go, ‘Really what?’ And in a way, it’s a little freakish, a little scary.”
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The actor continues, adding that even though it means he’s getting older, this new experience is “thrilling” and “exciting.”
“It’s like, it means I’m getting older, really older. But at the same time, it’s thrilling and it’s exciting,” he says. “And here we are. So what am I supposed to do? Want to go back to where… I’ve already lived that, so now this is the next chapter.”
Chiklis, who shares his children with wife Michelle Morán, tells PEOPLE that his daughter is “doing great” at seven months pregnant, adding that the baby is due in January. When asked if he’s going to spoil his granddaughter, the soon-to-be first-time grandfather says, “Of course, of course I am.”
While recently chatting with Live with Kelly and Mark hosts Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos about his grandbaby on the way, The Senior actor said that the joyful news has “broken me open like an egg.” He jokingly added that he cries in the shower and while walking down the street.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me, it’s broken me open like an egg. I cry in the shower,” he shared.
“Everything they say about being a grandparent is true, I guess, because the kid’s not even here yet and I’m mental,” he continued. “And, I live in [an] estrogen house, so it only makes sense that we’re having a girl.”
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The No Ordinary Family alum, who’s also a father to daughter Odessa, 25, shared with Ripa and Consuelos, both 54, what his grandpa name is going to be.
“I’m Pappouli,” he said. “I’m a Greek, so Pappouli, and you know when the kids are babies, she’s going to call me ‘Poo Poo’ or something. It’s the greatest.”
The actor went on to share that he can’t wait to hold and cuddle the baby, since it’s something that he misses now that his daughters are older.
After pretending to hold and cuddle an imaginary baby, Chiklis said, “I miss that, actually. Cause my kids are grown.”
