Neil Patrick Harris insists coronavirus is ''no joke'' after his family caught it and recovered from it earlier this year.

The 'How I Met Your Mother' star - who has nine-year-old twins Harper and Gideon with his husband David Burtka - has urged people to take the virus seriously after he was struck down with it in March.

Speaking on The Late Late Show with James Corden, he said: ''It was right when all of this was first happening - end of March, early April. It wasn't fun. I didn't really feel like it was newsworthy so much as I wasn't Instagramming about stuff. We were just kind of dealing with family. It was like a flu for multiple weeks and then lethargy for another at least that long of not wanting to exercise, not wanting to do much. It's no joke, that's for sure, But happily, we're on the other side of it. We didn't have to go to hospital. I don't really personally feel like someone's ills are newsworthy. So, I was trying to have it be past tense instead of present tense. Keep wearing masks everybody. It's pretty important.''

Neil recently opened up about his coronavirus battle, admitting that whilst it was ''not pleasant'' at the time, they're all OK now.

He shared: ''We feel great. It happened very early [in the pandemic], like late March, early April. 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. It was not pleasant, but we got through it and have antibodies and are feeling good. We want to make sure everyone's doing their best to slow this down every way possible, for sure.''