‘He was not a good father’

Growing up in showbiz isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, at least according to Shaun Cassidy.

The Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and former teen idol, who is the son of actors Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones, reflected on his strained relationship with his father Jack in an interview with People magazine published Sept. 21.

“He was not a good father — and I don’t say that with disrespect. I just say it with objectivity,” Cassidy, 66, told the magazine. “And yet, I wouldn’t have traded him for the world. I got so many gifts from him, so many.”

Jack Cassidy, who died in December 1976 in an apartment fire, was an Emmy-nominated and Tony Award-winning actor best known for his roles in the Broadway musical “She Loves Me,” the sitcom “He & She” and the Clint Eastwood-starring action flick “The Eiger Sanction.” He was born in New York City to a father of Irish descent and a mother of German descent.

However, despite Jack Cassidy’s American upbringing, Cassidy said his father often spoke with an inauthentic accent when he appeared in public.

“My dad was so complicated,” Cassidy said. “He basically invented this public persona with an accent that didn’t exist in any country ever.”

The affected voice became a source of confusion for Cassidy and his siblings, Patrick and Ryan Cassidy, the singer recalled: “It seemed so phony to us, and that wasn’t like who he was. I’m not sure he ever really figured out who he was.”

Cassidy added that his father was often not present during his childhood, explaining, “I didn’t get the dad who went to my Little League games or took me on camping trips or any of that stuff.”

Shaun Cassidy unpacks conflicting feelings about parents Jack Cassidy, Shirley Jones

For the Cassidy clan, fame was a blessing and a curse.

“Going out in public with them as a little kid, everyone was in love with my mother, and everybody was sort of dazzled by my father,” Cassidy told People. “I remember being proud of that, feeling like, ‘Oh, isn’t that cool?'”

Cassidy said his mother Shirley Jones, an Oscar-winning actress who starred in “The Partridge Family,” did her best to be there for him, but she was also frequently absent due to her demanding work schedule.

Shaun Cassidy, right, and his mother Shirley Jones attend a screening of “The Music Man” during the 2023 TCM Classic Film Festival in Los Angeles on April 16, 2023.

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“Who they really are is not how they’re perceived by the public anyway. The public has an idea of who they are,” said Cassidy of his parents. “If you grow up in a family of show folk, everything is very presentational.”

He added: “I talked to my brothers about this the other day. I had very, very few photographs of our family just sitting around the living room. Almost all the pictures I have were taken by professional photographers, often for magazines.”

The “Da Doo Ron Ron” singer, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, said he found solace with the children of other celebrities, who could relate to his struggles of living in the limelight.

“I have a whole friend group, kids, we were like ‘Peanuts,'” Cassidy said. “The parents weren’t around. And yet all of us had similar backgrounds. I mean, Carrie Fisher was two doors down, and she was a good pal of mine. We all got through it with challenges, for sure. We not only survived but thrived, and I think we looked after each other.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why Shaun Cassidy says dad Jack Cassidy was ‘not a good father’