{"id":2362871,"date":"2026-04-07T17:52:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T17:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2362871"},"modified":"2026-04-07T17:52:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T17:52:38","slug":"eric-roberts-says-his-relationship-with-daughter-emma-roberts-is-only-complicated-through-outside-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/eric-roberts-says-his-relationship-with-daughter-emma-roberts-is-only-complicated-through-outside-eyes\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Roberts says his relationship with daughter Emma Roberts is \u2018only complicated through outside eyes\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/eric-roberts-makes-dwts-dream-come-true-8714382\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Eric Roberts;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Eric Roberts&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Eric Roberts<\/a> shared rare comments about his relationship with daughter <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/person\/emma-roberts\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Emma Roberts;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Emma Roberts&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Emma Roberts<\/a> in a new interview.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The actor opened up to Kara Mayer Robinson on the April 1 episode of her <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/eric-roberts-new\/id1231521180?i=1000758587217\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Really Famous;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Really Famous&quot;}\" class=\"link \"><em>Really Famous<\/em><\/a> podcast, admitting that although he was estranged from Emma in the past, their relationship is &#8220;only complicated through outside eyes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Because they don\u2019t get any of it,&#8221; he said of public interest in <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/eric-roberts-laments-loss-relationship-daughter-emma-roberts-8732286\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:their dynamic;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;their dynamic&quot;}\" class=\"link \">their dynamic<\/a>. &#8220;So, they have their own take, whatever that is, and it&#8217;s not a straight line because they&#8217;re not really involved. So it&#8217;s just thoughts, possibilities, interests, fantasies, whatever it is. But it&#8217;s not a real relationship with the subjects, so how could it be anything but a thought?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Eric, 69, welcomed Emma, now 35, with ex Kelly Cunningham in February 1991 \u2014 a time when, he admitted, he was &#8220;a car wreck.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Emotionally, I was a wash rag,&#8221; he told Robinson. &#8220;I was not to be depended on emotionally, whatsoever&#8230; but I take full responsibility for it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The <em>Runaway Train<\/em> actor went on to explain that his own troubled relationship with his father most likely affected his self-worth as a man and dad. He battled depression and drug addiction for many years, and soured relationships with Emma as well as his sister <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/eric-roberts-apologizes-to-sister-julia-roberts-after-saying-he-made-her-famous-8714917\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Julia Roberts;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Julia Roberts&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Julia Roberts<\/a>, until he got sober in 1995 and made amends over the years.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"relative mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative\"><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"group absolute bottom-0 size-full\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\"><span class=\"absolute bottom-3 right-3 rounded-full bg-white p-3 opacity-100 shadow-elevation-3 transition-opacity duration-300 group-hover:block group-hover:opacity-100 md:p-[17px] lg:bottom-6 lg:right-6 lg:bg-white\/90 lg:p-5 lg:opacity-0 lg:shadow-none\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Modal Dialog\" aria-modal=\"true\" class=\"fixed bottom-0 left-0 right-0 top-0 z-4 size-full max-h-none max-w-none bg-white hidden\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-sm mt-1 pr-2.5\">\n<p><i>Eric Roberts, daughter Emma and wife Eliza.<br \/>Credit: Gregg DeGuire\/WireImage<\/i><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">With tears in his eyes, Eric reassured Robinson that bringing up his relationship with Emma didn&#8217;t bother him &#8220;at all&#8221; and that he&#8217;s &#8220;so proud of my daughter.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He also shared the story of their first-ever meeting after her birth, explaining that newborn Emma was &#8220;screaming her head off&#8221; until he started singing &#8220;Happy Birthday&#8221; \u2014 a song he performed countless times while Cunningham was pregnant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;And [Emma] stopped screaming and tried to find my face with her little blind eyes,&#8221; Eric recalled. &#8220;It was the most complete moment maybe I have ever had in my life \u2014 that something I did was recognized by a brand-new creature who had my DNA. And there she was. And she already knew me\u2026 It was magic. And I\u2019ll always have that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He added of the moment, &#8220;We recognized each other in her first moments of life. It may be the most incredible thing I&#8217;ve ever been through.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Eric also spoke about Emma in a 2024 appearance on <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/eric-roberts-laments-loss-relationship-daughter-emma-roberts-8732286\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:the Inside of You podcast;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;the Inside of You podcast&quot;}\" class=\"link \">the <em>Inside of You<\/em> podcast<\/a>, admitting that he gained a new perspective on his &#8220;sadness&#8221; over the loss of that father-daughter relationship in recent years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I started accepting that about myself with the birth of my grandchildren,&#8221; said Eric, who is grandpa to <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/emma-roberts-shares-photo-of-her-and-her-son-rhodes-at-arcade-outing-11679758\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Emma's son Rhodes;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Emma'&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Emma&#8217;s son Rhodes<\/a> with her ex Garrett Hedlund and two other grandkids through his stepchildren with wife Eliza Roberts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He admitted that welcoming his oldest granddaughter was eye-opening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;She was first, and she was a girl, so very vulnerable to me,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And [she] took a liking to me at two, two-and-a-half, in a very strong way, and named my wife &#8216;Famma,&#8217; and we&#8217;re all very close. So that, and she also looks like Emma. Same coloring. And so it reminds me of what I didn&#8217;t have.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;[Parenting is] the hardest job to do well and the easiest job to get on the planet. It&#8217;s a hard job,&#8221; he told Robinson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><strong><em>Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our <\/em><\/strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/ew-dispatch-newsletter-11812417\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:EW Dispatch newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;EW Dispatch newsletter&quot;}\" class=\"link \"><strong><em>EW Dispatch newsletter<\/em><\/strong><\/a><strong><em>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The actor previously detailed fatherhood in his 2024 memoir <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Runaway-Train-Story-Life-Far\/dp\/1250275326\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Runaway Train: Or the Story of My Life So Far;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Runaway Train&quot;}\" class=\"link \"><em>Runaway Train: Or the Story of My Life So Far<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I loved my little daughter with the strength of Hercules, despite my own weaknesses,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;However, I couldn\u2019t handle the realities of an infant coming into my life, and I couldn\u2019t handle being a parent. I\u2019m still not a father figure. Emma, on the other hand, certainly knows what that role is \u2014 now grown up and a mom herself. She\u2019s that person to her first child, Rhodes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Read the original article on <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ew.com\/eric-roberts-complicated-relationship-with-daughter-emma-roberts-11944366\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Entertainment Weekly;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Entertainment Weekly&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Entertainment Weekly<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eric Roberts shared rare comments about his relationship with daughter Emma Roberts in a new interview. The actor opened up to Kara Mayer Robinson on the April 1 episode of her Really Famous podcast, admitting that although he was estranged from Emma in the past, their relationship is &#8220;only complicated through outside eyes.&#8221; &#8220;Because they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2362872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[345338,367690,345279,434510,459083,402947,22535,323785,459082],"class_list":["post-2362871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-emma-roberts","tag-eric-roberts","tag-julia-roberts","tag-kara-mayer-robinson","tag-kelly-cunningham","tag-real-relationship","tag-relationship","tag-robinson","tag-troubled-relationship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Eric-Roberts-says-his-relationship-with-daughter-Emma-Roberts-is.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2362871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2362873,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2362871\/revisions\/2362873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2362872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2362871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2362871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2362871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}