Chris Hemsworth and his wife Elsa Pataky have been hauled over the coals online after sharing a prank they pulled on their twins' birthday, with critics branding the stunt "violent" and potentially dangerous.
In a snap shared to the Thor actor's 56.3 million Instagram followers on Monday, a grinning Pataky can be seen shoving one of her son's faces into a chocolate cake as his sister and twin brother erupt into laughter. Hemsworth is standing off to the side with a smile on his face.
"Happy 9th birthday to my two little men! Only one way to eat cake in this house and that's to have mum slam your head into it face first! 'Hey mum I don't like chocolate cake I prefer vanilla', 'oh really son, what about now'?," Hemsworth, 39, captioned the snap.
The couple are parents to the now-nine-year-old twins, Sasha and Tristan, and 10-year-old India Rose.
But the family fan rubbed a number of fans the wrong way, with a number taking to the comments to condemn the couple for promoting a "violent" practical joke.
"Why people smash their kids' faces in the cake is above my understanding but whatever," one commented, with a second agreeing: "I think it's ridiculous."
Another condemned the stunt as "violent", while a fourth asked: "Why do people think this is funny?"
"Please tell me you didn't waste a whole cake?" another chipped in, with one user claiming the prank had caused "several accidents" in their country.
Despite the backlash, many others rushed to the couple's defence, with several pointing out that shoving a person's face into a birthday cake is a traditional jape in Spain and Latin countries, citing Pataky's Spanish heritage.
A handful noted that pranks were "character building", while others argued it was a "bit of play" and the family looked to be having a good time together.
According to reports, smashing a friend or family member's face into a cake can present some risks. In 2021, a woman narrowly escaped losing her eyesight after her friends shoved her face into a tiered birthday cake, which had wooden rods inside to maintain its structure. One of the sticks pierced the woman's eyelid, causing heavy bleeding, according to reports.
Hemsworth and Pataky wed in December 2010 after beginning their romance earlier that year. The family-of-five resides in Byron Bay, New South Wales, after relocating from Los Angeles in 2015.
Last year, Hemsworth revealed during his National Geographic documentary Limitless that his maternal grandfather suffers from Alzheimer's disease, and he himself has inherited two copies of the APOE4 gene, making him eight to 10 times more likely to develop the disease compared to the general population.
Speaking to Vanity Fair in November, he opened up about the "intensity of navigating" his test results, explaining: "Most of us, we like to avoid speaking about death... Then to all of a sudden be told some big indicators are actually pointing to this as the route which is going to happen, the reality of it sinks in. Your own mortality."
Hemsworth has since announced his plan to take an indefinite break from acting to spend more time with his family.
