Simon Pegg: My daughter is the single greatest thing to happen to me

Simon Pegg’s daughter is the “single greatest thing” to happen to him.

The 52-year-old actor – who has 13-year-old Matilda with wife Maureen McCann – would happily relive the time his little girl was born over again because it was such an “amazing” and “profound” experience.

He said: “If I could live any time in my life again, it would definitely be the four days I spent in St John’s hospital in Santa Monica when my daughter was born.

“I flew back from filming ‘Paul’ and my wife and I went to get a Starbucks, then we drove to the hospital, and we had a child, and it was amazing.

“She was born to ‘Girl’ by The Beatles. Then the first song that came on after I cut the cord was ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, my favourite Beatles song, so I was bobbing around the operating theatre to that.

“We stayed in hospital for a few days, ordering pizza. July 4 came and we had a curry and watched the fireworks from our window.

“And I just remember it being such a profound moment; suddenly we were three and it was beautiful.

“Whenever Tilly’s birthday comes around I tell her that story and now she’s like, ‘Oh shut up dad, I know, you had a Starbucks, you went to the hospital, blah blah blah.’

“But for me that was, you know… because she’s the single greatest thing that’s ever happened to me in my life. So that can really be the only answer to that question.”

The ‘Star Trek’ actor recalled going through a “depressive period” when he went to university because he missed the “amazing” friends he had made at drama school.

He told The Big Issue: “After I finished my first two years away from home [at drama school], I fell into my depressive period. I think that was the shock of having just met this group of amazing people and then losing them, because I then left Stratford and went to the University of Bristol. That was a really hard summer.

“I grappled with a lot of emotional anxiety. I look back and I realise it was baally abandonment that I was suffering from. But I didn’t know that at the time, I didn’t know why I couldn’t get out of bed.

“One thing I’d definitely say to my younger self is, this will pass. I’d remind myself of that every time I stopped believing in my ability.

“When I was going through bouts of depression I had that feeling of, it doesn’t matter if I’m talented, it doesn’t matter if people want to work with me. I don’t know if I can be a****. It would be good to always know that feeling would pass.”