This article contains discussion of substance abuse.
If you don’t 100% know Eric Roberts, you at least recognize him from a bunch of things. If you’re watching this season of Dancing with the Stars, you can find him there, too.
There’s a good chance you know him best because of his famous family — like his sister Julia Roberts…
So, Eric has a new memoir out, Runaway Train: Or, the Story of My Life So Far — and in the book (via Entertainment Weekly), the veteran actor discloses his own regrets regarding how he handled parenting Emma when she was younger.
“I had abandoned Kelly when Emma was just seven months old,” he says, noting that his ex had also seen him at his “absolute worst.”
Eric also recalls Kelly’s “very exciting” pregnancy with Emma, as well as singing “Happy Birthday” to her belly while Emma was still in the womb — but, when it came to being a parent to his daughter, Eric admits that there were things he could’ve done better.
“I loved my little daughter with the strength of Hercules, despite my own weaknesses,” he writes. “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 also states that his battle with drug addiction made it difficult for him to be a present parent to Emma when she was born and eventually resulted in his losing custody. “The biggest consequence of my drug use was losing Emma,” he wrote. “I was still impossibly coked up when she was born, which explains everything.”
“Emma, on the other hand, certainly knows what that role is — now grown up and a mom herself. She’s that person to her first child, Rhodes.”
In the book, Eric also clears up long-standing rumors that he and Julia had “a giant falling out” over an alleged custody battle between him and Kelly over Emma.
“I never saw myself as someone who deserved to have physical custody of Emma, not in a million years,” he claims. “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.”
Eric goes on to claim that Julia actually helped him with legal fees regarding the establishment of the custody agreement between him and Kelly — and that along with their other sister Lisa Gillan, Julia ultimately just wanted Eric’s newfound parenthood to help him find his way.
“My sisters were hoping that my having fathered a child that I loved with the woman I was with would maybe calm me down and make me more stable as a person,” he explains. “Unfortunately, the stability has to come first. It’s not a child’s job to make you stable.”
In terms of Emma’s own acting career and subsequent maturity, Eric also praises his daughter for having “more tools at her disposal to build a safe place around herself than I ever did” — and he expresses pride on behalf of his daughter and his sister Julia, too.
“I imagine I will remain as Julia’s brother and Emma Roberts’s dad for the rest of my life,” he writes. “I’d like to make good on that, to move aside proudly and with grace. That’s part of the reason for writing this book.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, you can call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) and find more resources here.
