Family dynamics are rarely a perfect story.
Just ask Emma Roberts‘ father Eric Roberts. While his absence at her July 25 wedding to Cody John reminded fans of their complex history, the Oscar nominee noted his feelings for the American Horror Story star are actually quite simple.
“I love my daughter, always have, always will,” Eric told Page Six July 27. “It is perfectly wonderful for her to celebrate however she wants, with whomever she wants.”
Though it’s easy for rumors about their relationship to run rampant, the Runaway Train actor reminded the public they aren’t a part of his private world.
“It’s only complicated through outside eyes because they don’t get any of it,” he explained on an April episode of Really Famous With Kara Mayer Robinson. “So they have their own take, whatever that is, and it’s not a straight line ‘cause they aren’t really involved. So it’s just thoughts, possibilities, interests, fantasies, whatever it is. But it’s not a real relationship with the subjects. So, how can it be anything but a thought?”
And Eric is happy to share his thoughts on Emma’s career.
“I’m so proud of my kid,” he continued in the April chat. “She didn’t start off as a great actor, but she became a great actor. She’s fabulous, and I’m so proud of that.”
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Eric Roberts Speaks Out After Missing Daughter Emma Roberts’ Wedding
Still, he wasn’t willing to divulge more about where they stand. “It is what that is, but that’s a whole other issue in my life,” he added. “That’s not what we’re talking about today.”
What Eric has talked about, however, is his past with Emma. He has good memories, including how he sang “Happy Birthday” to then-girlfriend Kelly Cunningham’s baby bump before Emma arrived on Feb. 10, 1991 and how he sang it again on the day she was born.
“She stopped screaming and tried to find my face with her little blind eyes, and it was the most complete moment, maybe, I have ever had in my life—that something I did was recognized by a brand-new creature who had my DNA,” the 70-year-old shared on the podcast, calling the moment “magic.”
It was also a difficult time in Eric’s life as he noted he was battling depression as well as drug addiction.
“The biggest consequence of my drug use was losing Emma,” he wrote in his 2024 memoir Runaway Train: Or, The Story of My Life So Far. “I was still impossibly coked up when she was born, which explains everything.”
Eric and Kelly split months after Emma’s birth, and Kelly was awarded custody. In the book, Eric shut down rumors he and his Oscar-winning sister Julia Roberts had a “giant falling out” over her support of Kelly getting custody.
“I never saw myself as someone who deserved to have physical custody of Emma, not in a million years,” he added. “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.”
While Eric wrote that Julia and their sister Lisa had hopes he would have “calmed” down after becoming a parent, he admits it didn’t happen right away.
“It’s not a child’s job to make you stable,” he acknowledged. “Julia and Lisa sided with Emma and her well-being—but so did Kelly and I. The difference being that I just couldn’t raise Emma on my own. We were a nice little family for a while, but it didn’t last. I was in too much trouble.”
Eric noted in the book he’s since “kicked all my addictions except pot.” And while The Dark Knight actor–who wed Eliza Roberts in 1992—may not have been the father to Emma that he wanted to be, he’s proud of the parent she is to her son Rhodes, the 5-year-old she welcomed with ex Garrett Hedlund in December 2020.
“I loved my little daughter with the strength of Hercules, despite my own weaknesses,” he wrote in the book per Entertainment Weekly. “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. 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.”
And he stated they even communicated a bit on social media.
“Emma gave permission for us to interact a little bit with her on her Instagram page,” he wrote, per the outlet. “It’s always good to ask, because we’re engaging in a very public way. This is often what private life has come to in this upside-down, misruled world so dominated by social media.”
For her part, Emma has kept details of the state of her relationship with Eric private (E! News reached out to the actress’ rep after her dad spoke about her wedding but didn’t hear back). And it seems like both she and Julia would prefer to keep things that way.
“I love my sister, but I can’t talk about her,” Eric said on the Still Here Hollywood podcast in 2024. “She don’t want me to talk about it, and also, my daughter has also told me not to talk about her. But I stumble and do.”
Now that Emma has said “I do,” keep reading to learn more about her road to the altar with Cody.
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