Jerry O'Connell has thanked Rebecca Romijin for making him grow up.

The 52-year-old actor was "very immature" when he first met the X-Men actress at a party in 2004 and he knew he needed to change in order to settle down and build a life with her.

Jerry - who married Rebecca in 2017 and went on to have twin daughters Charlie and Dolly, now 17, with her - told Fox News Digital: "My wife was definitely the biggest turning point in my life.

"I can't believe that my wife is with me, first of all. Thank you, honey, if you're watching this, thank you for being with me this week.

"Meeting my wife was one of the biggest turning points of my life.

"I was very immature. And then I met my wife, and my wife wanted to start a family. … I was like, 'It's not going to get better than this for me, so I might as well settle down.' And I'm so glad I did. We have two great kids, and we have a lot of fun."

Now his daughters are older, Jerry admitted they are "eternally embarrassed" by him and he has realised everything he says or does is "wrong" to them.

Discussing how his own kids influenced his performance in Summer's Last Resort, in which he plays the overenthusiastic boyfriend of a single mom with a very unimpressed daughter, he said: "It's not one scene. I think it's just like an aura.

"I live with teenage girls, my daughters, and they are eternally embarrassed by me. They can't stand my presence. Everything I say is the wrong thing to say.

"And I really, I really brought that to Summer's Last Resort and our set. Anytime I did a scene with Violet [McGraw, co-star], I thought, 'Oh, what is something my daughters would not talk to me for weeks at a time for?' And I just did that in every scene."

Jerry's kids have shown him that he needs to give them the space to make their own decisions and to trust their judgement.

He said: "They also taught me to give people space. ... I have to trust my kids. They're pretty good kids.

"I have one daughter who was playing volleyball and then wanted to quit volleyball, and I was sort of getting on her for quitting volleyball.

"I just sort of let them find their own way. ... I have to trust them. I have to stop telling them what to do. That's something that they taught me. Stop trying to control situations."