Neil Patrick Harris reveals his family contracted the coronavirus earlier this year

Neil Patrick Harris opened up about his family’s struggle with COVID-19 during an interview Tuesday on Today.

The 47-year-old How I Met Your Mother star revealed that he, his husband David Burtka, 45, and their nine-year-old twins Gideon and Harper all contracted the coronavirus in the spring.

All four have recovered now and are doing well, but the actor described their experience as ‘not pleasant.’

‘It happened very early [in the pandemic], like late March, early April,’ he explained. ‘We were doing our best before, and I thought I had the flu, and I didn’t want to be paranoid about it. And then I lost my sense of taste and smell, which was a big indicator, so we holed up.’

Although a loss of the sense of taste or smell wasn’t initially believed to be a symptom of COVID-19, the CDC later added the sudden loss to its list of potential symptoms after many people reported it early in their illnesses.

From his vantage point months later, Harris sounded grateful that his family had recovered fully from the virus.

‘It was not pleasant, but we got through it,’ he added.

Harris and his family have since gained a certain amount of protection from the coronavirus, as they all developed antibodies during their illnesses.

However, the science on immunity from COVID-19 is rapidly developing, and some people who initially developed antibodies after contracting the illness later lost them, presumably leaving them with no extra defenses.

‘We want to make sure everyone’s doing their best to slow this down every way possible, for sure,’ the Doogie Howser star added.

Harris and Burtka welcomed their twins in 2010, and the couple tied the knot in 2014 after getting engaged years earlier.  

Earlier this month, Harris and his family were spotted boating and spending time with friends in the Hamptons.

They wore masks during part of the gathering but removed them while chatting with friends aboard a boat. 

Last week, Variety reported that a female-led reboot of Harris’ old TV series Doogie Howser, M.D. had been picked up by the Disney+ streaming service.

The new and updated version, titled Doogie Kameāloha, M.D., will focus on Lahela ‘Doogie’ Howser, a mixed race 16-year who works as a doctor in Hawaii.

The lead actress hasn’t been announced yet, but the 10-episode season will be written and executive produced by Kourtney Kang, who’s best known for launching Fresh Off The Boat and working on all nine seasons of How I Met Your Mother, which also starred Harris.