Sexiest Man Alive Patrick Dempsey Teases He Has Been in an Awkward Phase 'Pretty Much My Entire Life'

"Now it’s just better clothes, and my wife does a great job taking care of my hair," jokes the 'Ferrari' actor

Fans fell in love with Patrick Dempsey in 1987’s Can’t Buy Me Love or as JFK-esque fiancé Andrew Hennings in 2002’s Sweet Home Alabama. Not to mention, as neurosurgeon Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd on ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy.

But the actor, 57, who was just crowned PEOPLE’s 2023 Sexiest Man Alive, jokes he’s been in an awkward phase “pretty much my entire life.”

During his childhood in Maine, “I needed to be moving all the time. Lot of sports, baseball, soccer, skiing, cycling,” the Ferrari actor tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “I had dyslexia, so the classroom was never happy, and I was really a late bloomer.”

In his youth, Dempsey joined a vaudeville troupe and rode a unicycle while juggling. “People are very enthusiastic when you juggle,” he says. “That helped my confidence a lot.”

Related: All the Sexiest Man Alive Covers

The actor says the key now is maturity and wisdom. “I think it helps when you get older,” he explains. “You go through cycles of life, so you understand there are going to be high and low moments and what are the most important things. Everything else is a gift.”

Despite his heartthrob status over the years, “I’m glad it’s happening at this point in my life,” he says of his new title. “It’s nice to have the recognition, and certainly my ego takes a little bump, but it gives me the platform to use it for something positive.”

Closest to his heart is the Dempsey Center, which he founded in honor of his late mom Amanda, who died in 2014 after a longtime battle with ovarian cancer.

“We help people who have been impacted by cancer,” he says. “We don’t treat the disease, we treat the person and entire family at no cost in what is called wraparound care.”

As for his mom, “I think she’d be proud,” Dempsey adds. “We founded it in 2008, and one of the things that kept her going was going into the Center. She would come in and talk to people who were newly diagnosed. There’s a lot of healing between both people in those moments.”

For more on 2023's Sexiest Man Alive, pick up this week's issue of People, on newsstands Friday.

Now a devoted family man to wife Jillian, 57, a makeup artist and founder of her own clean beauty line, and their kids Talula, 21, and 16-year-old twins Sullivan and Darby, Dempsey jokes his self-confidence these days comes from “better clothes, and my wife does a great job taking care of my hair.”

He does arguably have some of the best hair in Hollywood. “It took four hours this morning to get it like this,” he says, laughing. “It’s all smoke and mirrors.”

Ferrari is in theaters Christmas Day. For more information on the Dempsey Center, visit dempseycenter.org.

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