The ‘Daily Show’ host said he cried when helping both his son and daughter move into their dorms.

Jon Stewart confesses to Jason Bateman he broke down ugly-crying when dropping his kids off at college: ‘I was damaged’

The 'Daily Show' host said he cried when helping both his son and daughter move into their dorms.

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and NME.

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June 2, 2026 11:13 a.m. ET

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Jon Stewart, wife Tracey McShane, and their children Nate and Maggie in 2022. Credit:

Paul Morigi/Getty

- Jon Stewart had an emotional reaction to his kids leaving home for college.

- *The Daily Show *host told Jason Bateman on Monday's show that he ugly-cried twice when helping his son and daughter settle into their dorms.

- Stewart said that he cried so hard that "my son literally had to slap me."

Jason Bateman and Jon Stewart had two very different reactions to sending their kids off to college.

During his visit to *The Daily Show** *on Monday, the *DTF St. Louis *star revealed that he had made peace with his 19-year-old daughter, Francesca, leaving the nest for college because she was attending school locally, in Los Angeles.

“When they get to be 18, their wings are already flapping pretty fast. They are out of the nest multiple times throughout the week, like, you’re not losing that little angel that still needs you to put them to bed and stuff,” Bateman explained.

“They’re pretty independent by that age, and we’ve learned how to sort of almost become peers. It was smoother than I thought it would be,” he said.

Jon Stewart and Jason Bateman on 'The Daily Show'.

Stewart, who admitted he’d “embarrassed myself at both my kids’ drop-offs” earlier in their chat, tried his best to relate to Bateman’s laid-back sentiment.

“Yeah, absolutely!” the host, who has two kids — son Nathan and daughter Maggie — declared. When Bateman noted that Stewart’s experience was different because his kids moved “out of town” for school, the host continued, “No, no, no! Absolutely! I was the same!”

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As the audience laughed, Bateman simply asked, “Jon, did you fall apart?”

“Twice,” Stewart replied. “Both kids.”

“No, Jon! Ugly-crying?” Bateman prompted, to which Stewart responded, “Bad, man. To the point where, like, my son literally had to slap me. He goes, ‘Snap out of it, man!’”

Stewart confessed that he didn’t think the wave of emotions he felt saying goodbye to Nate “was going to sneak up on me,” adding, “I was damaged. And he handled it! Bless his heart.”

Bateman sympathized with the host, noting he felt similarly when touring colleges that were far from home with Francesca.

“That was not good, all of these foreign roads and the airports and, like, she’s gonna be so far away,” Bateman said. “That was tough.”

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Stewart went on to share what the experience taught him.

“Here’s what’s interesting to me is, well, I’m generally a loner,” he said. “But you form this unit, the wife and the kids, and it really becomes more and more your whole world. I find that my friendships — I still have such love for my friends.”

“What friends?” Bateman interjected as Stewart agreed. “We’re so old. We don’t have anybody anymore. It’s just the kids and the wife. Which is what we want! That’s what you want!”

“Yeah, but then they leave!” Stewart exclaimed, referring to his children. “And it turns out my wife… still had friends! She didn’t tell me!”

Listen to Stewart and Bateman talk moving their kids in to college in the clip above.

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