Eric Roberts has described the “loss of relationship” with his daughter Emma Roberts to be the “toughest period” of his life.
During an interview for the Inside of You podcast on Tuesday, host Michael Rosenbaum asked the Runaway Train star to name one of the more challenging chapters he has faced.
In response, Eric reflected on the time he became estranged from Emma, whom he shared with former partner Kelly Cunningham, while he battled drug addiction in the early 1990s.
“Probably the loss of relationship with my daughter,” he commented. “There’s not a pain, there’s a sadness for the, most likely, misunderstandings (that) I’ll have forever. Because we’re human.”
Eric, who married Eliza Roberts in 1992, got sober in 1995 after attending a court-ordered rehab programme.
And the prolific actor went on to recall how he realised he had a lot to make up for when he became a grandfather for the first time.
“I started accepting that about myself with the birth of my grandchildren,” the 68-year-old continued. “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 colouring. And so, it reminds me of what I didn’t have.”
Eric is also the grandfather of Emma’s son Rhodes, whom she welcomed in December 2020.
The Oscar-nominated actor is currently promoting his memoir, titled Runaway Train or, The Story of My Life So Far.
In the book, Eric rejected past news reports suggesting his sister Julia Roberts had backed Kelly in a custody battle over Emma – because he wasn’t the little girl’s primary caregiver in the first place.
“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.”
