Ron Howard reveals how he left his son Reed in great danger

Ron Howard recently got candid and opened up about once leaving his son Reed at a Krispy Kreme shop.

While conversing with PEOPLE magazine for this week’s issue, the 71-year-old American filmmaker and actor revealed he once forgot his son Reed, now 38, at a Krispy Kreme when they were on a road trip to Yosemite, California, United States.

Ron, who shares his four children, daughter Bryce Dallas Howard, 44, twins Jocelyn and Paige, 40, and son Reed, with wife Cheryl Howard, shared, “I left Reed in a Krispy Kreme.”

He recalled, “We were driving up to Yosemite on a family vacation, also with Cheryl's sisters and their family, a lot of kids, so it was a convoy. We stopped at a gas station, which also had a Krispy Kreme. And I guess Reed said, ‘Dad, I'm going to the bathroom.’ And I went, ‘Yeah, yeah, great.’ Forgot all about it.”

“We all loaded up. Kids were changing cars anyway. We drove for a couple of hours, made it to Yosemite, had no cell phone connection in between,” the Eden star explained. “When we got there, my assistant called and said, ‘Hey, Ron, how are you?’ I said, ‘Oh, I'm fine. I just finally got a cell phone connection.’ She said, ‘I know, I've been trying you. Where's Reed?’”

“She'd been my assistant for a long time and was willing to set me up for a joke. I said, ‘Oh, I don't know. Where is Reed?’ And she said, ‘He's in Fresno. You left him in a Krispy Kreme in Fresno,’” Ron quipped.

Clearing the air about how he failed to notice Reed’s absence from the scene, the father of four explained, “Because it was a convoy of brothers and sisters, but also cousins. And kids were trading off cars anyway, so the fact that he wasn't in my car meant nothing. He was probably just in his cousins' car. It's just, I was so tired and there was so much noise, and so much carrying on trying to get to Yosemite, that it just never crossed my mind or Cheryl's.”

Eventually Reed was ferried back, who was safe, sound, and “enjoyed it."