Chris Pratt plays a Marvel superhero onscreen, but in real-life, his wife Katherine Schwarzenegger is his hero. The Guardians of the Galaxy star, 41, praised his wife, who gave birth to their daughter Lyla amid the pandemic last year, during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Chris told the talk show host that Katherine “got pregnant just before the pandemic struck. Did the full pregnancy and gave birth in a pandemic and I’m telling you, that is not easy. For any new moms who had to go through that and do that, it’s tough.”

“You can’t bring anyone in to these doctor appointments. You go in to give birth to your baby, they’re like, ‘Do you have your mask?’ It’s hard,” the actor said. “It’s made everything a lot harder, but especially, I think, childbirth and pregnancy cause obviously you’re concerned about your own health, but now when you have like a little infant around. It just adds a whole new degree of stress.”

“But she handled it so well. She never missed a beat. She’s my hero,” Chris continued. “She is a fantastic woman. I’m a lucky man.”

Chris and Katherine welcomed their first child together last August. The Hollywood star is also a father to eight-year-old son Jack, whom he shares with his ex-wife Anna Faris. The Infinity War actor celebrated Katherine’s first Mother’s Day “as a mom” earlier this month with a sweet tribute on Instagram. Alongside a photo of his wife, Chris wrote, “Happy Mother’s Day to my sweet @katherineschwarzeneggerThis is your first year as a mom, your third year as a step mom, and 31st year as a hot momma. Thank you for everything you do for us. We love you!!”

While on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Chris revealed the special gift he gave Katherine for her first Mother’s Day. “I found her this really old photograph taken by Andy Warhol, who I found out is a photographer that people like his stuff. It’s expensive and so that makes it nice, I guess,” he said.

“But he did photographs and he had done a photograph of her mother [Maria Shriver] some 20, 30, 40 years ago. I don’t know when this photo was taken, but this beautiful photo that I found,” Chris added. “And I was able to buy that photo and have it framed and gave it to her for Mother’s Day. So a picture of her mother.”