Emma Roberts’ dad Eric Roberts cites ‘loss of relationship with my daughter’ as his toughest period

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Eric Roberts is reflecting on his personal regrets.

The Oscar-nominated actor and father of Emma Roberts discussed the most difficult period in his life in a candid conversation with Michael Rosenbaum on the Inside of You podcast. “Probably the loss of relationship with my daughter,” Roberts said when asked about the most distressing chapter in his life story. “There’s not a pain, there’s a sadness for the most likely misunderstanding is what I’ll have forever, because we’re human.”

Eric Roberts and Emma Roberts.

John Nacion/Getty; Pascal Le Segretain/Getty


Roberts went on to explain how his eventual relationship with his daughter’s children recontextualized his regret. “I started accepting that about myself with the birth of my grandchildren,” he said. “Especially the five-year-old. She was first, and she was a girl, so very vulnerable to me, and took a liking to me at two, two-and-a-half, in a very strong way, and named my wife ‘Famma,’ and we’re all very close. So that, and she also looks like Emma. Same coloring. And so it reminds me of what I didn’t have.”

The prolific character actor previously detailed his parenting (and his lack thereof) in his memoir Runaway Train: Or the Story of My Life So Far.  “I loved my little daughter with the strength of Hercules, despite my own weaknesses,” he wrote. “However, I couldn’t handle the realities of an infant coming into my life, and I couldn’t handle being a parent! I’m still not a father figure. Emma, on the other hand, certainly knows what that role is — now grown up and a mom herself. She’s that person to her first child, Rhodes.”

In the book, Roberts clarified that he never even sought custody of his daughter. “I never saw myself as someone who deserved to have physical custody of Emma, not in a million years,” he wrote. “We both knew better than that. Kelly never claimed I was trying to get physical custody of Emma, so therefore, Julia never sided with Kelly in a custody fight. There really was no custody fight. I’m very happy to be straightening this out right now.”

Eric Roberts and Emma Roberts.

Gregg DeGuire/WireImage


Now, Roberts sometimes engages with his daughter online — with her blessing. “Emma gave permission for us to interact a little bit with her on her Instagram page,” he wrote in the book. “It’s always good to ask, because we’re engaging in a very public way. This is often what private life has come to in this upside-down, misruled world so dominated by social media.”

Earlier this year, the Dark Knight actor gushed about his daughter’s work as an actress. “I am in love with my daughter’s work these days like I can’t, I can’t believe how great she’s become,” he said in an interview with the Still Here Hollywood podcast. “I’m so proud of her I can’t see straight. Since her performance in Maybe I Do until right now, she overwhelms me with pride and just, ‘Oh my God. Here she goes again.’ And I’m just so happy to be her dad because she’s kicking ass, and I’m so proud.”

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Watch the full conversation between Roberts and Rosenbaum above.

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