Claim: Joffrey Baratheon is the son of Cersei Lannister.

Joffrey Baratheon is a fictional character in the A Song of Ice and Fire series of epic fantasy novels by American author George R. R. Martin , and its television adaptation Game of Thrones .   Introduced in 1996 's A Game of Thrones , Joffrey is the eldest son of Cersei Lannister from the kingdom of Westeros . He subsequently appeared in Martin 's A Clash of Kings -LRB- 1998 -RRB- and A Storm of Swords -LRB- 2000 -RRB- .   Joffrey is portrayed by Irish actor Jack Gleeson in the HBO television adaptation . In 2016 , Rolling Stone ranked the character # 4 in their list of the `` 40 Greatest TV Villains of All Time '' .