Warning: this article mentions substance abuse.
Emma Roberts’ father is speaking candidly about their relationship and the impact of substance abuse.
Actor Eric Roberts, who is the brother of Julia Roberts, is the father of the American Horror Story star.
Eric has been open about dealing with substance abuse in the past and how it created difficulty in parenting Emma, 35, when she was a child.
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“I loved my little daughter with the strength of Hercules, despite my own weakness,” he said in his 2024 memoir Runaway Train: Or, the Story of My Life So Far. “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.”
Eric Roberts, 69, and Emma’s mother, Kelly Cunningham, divorced when she was seven months old.
“The biggest consequence of my drug use was losing Emma. I was still impossibly coked up when she was born, which explains everything,” he said, adding, “I never saw myself as someone who deserved to have physical custody of Emma, not in a million years.”
This week, the Dark Knight actor opened up about his feelings on parenting on Kara Mayer Robinson’s Really Famous podcast.
He remembers singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Emma, describing it as ‘the most complete moment, maybe I have ever had in my life,’. He sang the song repeatedly while Kelly was pregnant, Eric said and remembers the moment newborn Emma stopped ‘screaming her head off’ when he sang the song.
“That something I did was recognized by a brand-new creature who had my DNA. Oh my God. And there she was, and she already knew me," he .
He described the moment as, ‘maybe the most incredible thing’ he has experienced. When Emma was born, Eric had been experiencing depression and ‘self-abuse’.
“Emotionally, I was a wash rag. I was not to be depended on emotionally whatsoever, ‘cause I was a car wreck. And I was a car wreck because of many things, but I take full responsibility for it,” he said.
“I’m so proud of my daughter,” he continued.
When asked if their father-daughter relationship is ‘complicated’, Eric explained: “Not really. It’s only complicated to outside eyes because they don’t get any of it, so they have their own take, whatever that is, and it’s not.”
He also praised his daughter’s work: “You know, she didn’t start off as a great actor. But she became a great actor. She’s fabulous, and I’m so proud of that...The first thing I saw her do that I was like, ‘Wow, oh my God, I’m so proud of you’, was, uh, Maybe I Do. Is that it? I don’t know, I’m so bad with titles.”
The movie, Maybe I Do, was released in 2023. Before it came out, Emma starred in multiple seasons of American Horror Story, including the most recent season Delicate alongside Kim Kardashian, Scream Queens, Wild Child, Nancy Drew, Aquamarine, and We’re the Millers.
If you've been affected by addiction and want to speak to someone in confidence, you can call American Addiction Centers on (888) 324-0595, available 24/7, or contact them through their website.
Greg Harris