Charlie Hunnam on The Kitten Rescue That Changed His Life: ‘My Heart Broke—I Literally Just Started Crying’

On September 17, a new installment of Ryan Murphy’s anthology series, Monster, will hit Netflix and tell the gruesome story of Lizzie Borden, the woman accused of murdering her mother and father in 1892 with an axe. Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is led by Ella Beatty, daughter of Annette Bening and Warren Beatty, and she’s joined by familiar faces like Vicky Krieps and Charlie Hunnam. Hunnam rose to fame when he played Jax Teller in Sons of Anarchy, and last year, he joined the Murphy-verse as serial killer Ed Gein. Though Charlie Hunnam’s projects with Ryan Murphy veer toward gruesome and gory, the 46-year-old actor is actually a major softie—with an affinity for cats! The television star has a history of rescuing furry friends—and we didn’t think it was possible to love him more! Here, read all about Charlie Hunnam’s journey toward feline fatherhood. 

Charlie Hunnam recalls his brave kitten rescue that led to 10+ years of love

In 2017, during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Charlie Hunnam detailed the excursion that led him to rescuing his cat of 17 years. Before going to bed one evening, he heard the faint meows of a kitten coming from his roof. “In order to get onto my roof, I used to have to climb onto the garage, and there was about a 3-foot gap, and the roof was about 2 feet higher than the garage. So I’d have to run and Superman-style jump over.” 

At the time that he’d heard the kitten, it was 11 p.m. and pouring rain, so he thought waiting until the morning would be a safer option. Setting an alarm for 5 a.m., by the time he went to check on the kitten, he was in rough shape, having been half-submerged in a puddle. “And I picked him up and my heart broke—I literally just started crying. I thought ‘This is the end of my life. There’s no chance for happiness for me now.’”

However, a silent meow let out from the cat’s mouth prompted Charlie to tuck him under his arm and run two-and-a-half miles to the nearest vet. Though at first things didn’t look promising, a few hours later, the cat was saved—and Charlie began his cat dad journey. 

Charlie used cats to decompress from ‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’

Diving into the third season of Monster and bringing Ed Gein to life was of course draining, and to decompress, Hunnam would spend his downtime interacting with cats at a local shelter. Two cats in particular, Gingerbread and Sugar Plum, ultimately stole his heart, and going forward with adoption, these two furry friends got to live a life of luxury while he finished filming the series. 

“I had this really lovely room in the Four Seasons, and they were so kind to me,” he shared with The Hollywood Reporter. “And I came home one day, I’m like, ‘Listen, I know this is a wild card, but like, I just adopted these two kittens. Can I keep them in my room?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah, tell us anything you need.’ I’m a very serious pet owner. I had to hire a cat sitter because obviously I work 14, 15 hours a day. I wasn’t going to just leave them alone for that period of time, and so then I had a cat sitter with them for like, eight hours. They went from the streets to really coming up in life and living that Four Seasons life with a full time cat sitter playing with them. So I would go home from the darkest realm and just literally play with kittens for three hours.”

Charlie Hunnam’s commitment to his fur babies is everything, and we can’t wait to hear about what adventures they get up to next! See him shine in the new season of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, out on September 17.