Hollywood A-lister Colin Farrell has recalled the emotional moment his son James took his first steps before his fourth birthday.

The Dubliner is dad to two sons. He shares his firstborn son, James Padraig Farrell, with ex-girlfriend Kim Bordenave and his younger son, Henry Tadeusz Farrell, with Ondine costar Alicja Bachleda-Curús.

But shortly after he was born in 2003, Colin and Kim were given the heartbreaking news that their son James had been diagnosed with Angelman’s Syndrome.

In a rare insight into the condition and James’ upbringing, Colin shared the first signs that they knew his son wasn’t hitting benchmarks as a baby.

In a video posted by Linden Clinics on social media, which promote stem cell therapy for autism in children, Colin is seen opening up about how doctors came to discover James wasn’t developing like normal babies should’ve been when he was first born.

He said: ‘James is very silent, very silent, baby. He didn’t coo. He didn’t make any sounds at all. I just thought he hit the lottery. You know, I thought I have a chill child. He’s not going to keep me up at night. But then he just wasn’t hitting benchmarks.

‘He wasn’t sitting up. He couldn’t sit up. You’d sit him up and he’d fall over. He wasn’t crawling. He couldn’t stay up on his legs at all, so we knew that something was up.. developmental delays.. and the doctor said, “Well, let me just do a genetic test, a blood test. We can just do a genetic mapping, and we’ll see.” And it came back positive…’

But the 50-year-old opened up about watching his son take his first steps, just two weeks short of his fourth birthday.

He said: ‘My God, James’s first steps. I’ll never forget James’s first steps. Two weeks short of his fourth birthday, and I stood over there, and she had him, and she let him go, and he just came. It was, I mean, it was so profound.

‘I mean, yeah, it was magic. I’m never forgetting just the face of sheer determination on him as he just walked towards me. You know, he took like six steps, and I burst, burst into tears. It was amazing.

In 2024, Farrell launched the Colin Farrell Foundation in honor of James. The nonprofit provides support for adult children who have intellectual disabilities through advocacy, education and innovative programs.

Colin said: ‘All these things are huge, huge achievements. And so, if anything, you know, he also gifts me with the ability to look at the human being and the human body and and life as a marvel because I see how much he struggles with things that I would never have given a second’s thought to, and that I would just like many of us take for granted, you know.

‘But now we’re looking towards the rest of his life. What’s the next chapter of James’s life look like, and so James’s last 20, 30, 40 years of James’s life, he’ll be somewhere where he feels like he belongs, where he feels like he’s safe, and where he can garden and watch movies and swim in the pool and go out to the beach and just have a full and meaningful and connected life.

‘You know, that’ll be the dream,’ he added.