Daniel Dae Kim Says His Kids Taught Him What 'Zaddy' Meant: 'They're Happy I Don't Look Like an Old Man'

Daniel Dae Kim is "zaddy" to many, but he'll always be "daddy" to a select few.

The Lost alum, 55, revealed on Thursday's episode of The Jennifer Hudson Show that while the internet has dubbed him a "zaddy," he only found out what the word means from his kids.

Kim shares two adult children with his wife Mia Kim: sons Zander and Jackson.

"The first time I saw that, I thought it must be a typo. I don't know why there's a 'z' in front of there... I heard it on the internet, that was the first time," he said.

"And then my kids kind of told me, 'Oh, it kind of means this and that,' and I was like, 'Oh.'"

Elsewhere during the discussion, Hudson brought up how Kim was named as one of PEOPLE's Sexiest Men Alive twice — in both 2005 and 2021. When Hudson, 42, asked Kim what that SMA buzz meant to his kids, he explained that he'll "always be dad to them."

"I make dad jokes around the house and they roll their eyes. But I actually do think they're happy that I don't look like an old man," Kim said. "That I still could make that list."

For Kim himself, however, the 2005 inclusion holds a special significance. "I felt like it was one small step for me, one large step for Asian-American men," Kim said. "Because at that time, there weren't that many men who looked like me who were in a list like that. Nowadays, with K-pop and K-drama, there's a lot more awareness of Korea. But we're talking 2004, 2005. It was pretty different then."

"And it was nice. It didn't change my life in any way. I still had to take out the garbage," he joked. "But I liked what it meant representationally."

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This years marks 20 years since Lost first premiered on ABC in 2004. And while it's been two decades, some members of the cast have remained close. In December 2022, Kim joined costars Harold Perrineau and Josh Holloway for a holiday hangout, where they shared a wholesome photo together on Instagram.

"Season's Greetings from the rafties," Kim wrote, as a nod to their characters being three of the four who set sail on a makeshift raft in the first two seasons of the award-winning show.

Most recently, Kim has taken on the role of Fire Lord Ozai, the leader of the Fire Nation, in Netflix's live action Avatar: The Last Airbender series. He appears opposite of Gordon Cormier (Aang), Kiawentiio (Katara) and Ian Ousley (Sokka).