Kelsey Grammer's daughter details 12-year estrangement from dad after he announces birth of eighth child at 70 years old
Kit Roberts
Featured Image Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Greer Grammer has opened up about her relationship with her father Kelsey Grammer, whom she was estranged from for 12 years.
The Deadly Illusion's star is the second eldest of the 70-year-old's eight children, with his youngest child, a son, being born last month.
Greer, who was born Kandace Greer Grammer, is the X-Men star's only child with makeup artist, Barrie Buckner, and the 33-year-old revealed that from when she was four until 16, she 'didn't know' her father.
Speaking on the Pretty Basic podcast, she delved into her relationship with him, as well as where the two stood now.
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During her interview, host Alisha Marie asked Greer if there were any 'misconceptions' that people often had about her upbringing, to which the actress replied: "People have misconceptions about me when they hear my last name because they're like, 'Oh, well, that's Kelsey Grammer's daughter. Clearly, she grew up in this way'.
"And that makes so much sense. I'd think that too. But yeah, I think that's the biggest misconception about me is: my dad left when I was four and then I didn't meet him again until I was 16."
She revealed that she has only vague memories of her dad, like attending a taping of his popular TV show, Fraser, and him watching her in her preschool production of The Wizard of Oz.
"I can see them when I think about them," she said. "But after that, I don't know. And of course, my therapist was like, 'Do you remember when you knew that your dad wasn't a part of your life anymore?', and I was like, 'No'."
Greer recalled seeing her father once at Blockbuster when she was 11, but she 'ran away'. She also said that she once tried getting in contact with him via his 'fan mail address', as she continued: "I went on the Internet and found his fan mail address. [I wrote] 'Do you ever miss me? Do you think about me on my birthday?'"
Greer added that she also repeatedly rewatched the 1997 film, Anastasia, which Grammer had a voice role in, and after hearing a song he sang, she said that it 'sounds like my dad', which her grandmother confirmed, and she thought it was 'so cool'.
Eventually, the pair met in person and began to have some sort of relationship.
"When I was 16, I ran into him at a Christmas tree lot and he came up to me and he said, 'Are you Greer?'," she said. "I said, 'Yes, I am. Then he went, 'I am—' I was like, 'I know who you are, duh'.”
He then gave her his phone number and they had lunch together a week later.
"That's kind of what started our relationship," the Awkward star said. "It took a couple of days to call him, because my mom was like, 'Give them some time.' I was ready to call him that day, like, 'Let's do this thing. I got a dad now, woohoo!'
"She was kind of like, 'Take some time to think about it over the weekend. Let them process it as a family and then call'."
She went on to say that she and her dad 'have a good relationship now', adding that he'd paid his mandatory child support and for her college tuition, which she said was 'amazing'.
Grammer had previously told People Magazine that he'd been 'playing catch up with some of the older' kids, adding: "I have neglected a couple of the kids in my life, especially the first two.
"I'm trying to make up for a little of it now. I'm still their dad, so you can always have [a] chance to show up."