Sir Anthony Hopkins is defending himself after revealing that he hasn’t spoken to his estranged daughter in twenty years and doesn’t even know if he is a grandfather.
In a recent interview with the Radio Times, the 80-year-old actor claimed he couldn’t care less about his daughter, Abigail, and whether or not he ever sees her again.
Asked if he is a grandfather now, Hopkins said: “I don’t have any idea. People break up. Families split and, you know, ‘Get on with your life.’ People make choices. I don’t care one way or the other.”
When told that his comments sounded cold, “The Silence of the Lambs” star replied: “Well, it is cold. Because life is cold.”
Speaking to The Times in a new interview, the actor was asked again about his remarks being perceived as cold.
“No, I wasn’t cold. I’m not cold,” he said. “Her choice is her choice. You know, I did the best I could, but you know, OK, I think if somebody doesn’t want to be part of my life, fine.”
“Go and do whatever you want. I have no memories or any… I certainly don’t… I wish her well and all that, but I don’t want to talk about my daughter. Those things are over,” Hopkins continued. “I’ve got no blame. People do what they do. And I don’t understand it and it doesn’t bother me. I can’t waste my time worrying about it. And I’m not cold, I’m just thinking, ‘Oh well, that’s the way it is.'”
Abigail is the actor’s only daughter, with former wife Petronella Barker. The couple divorced when Abigail was just four years old; she was subsequently raised by her mother.
In the 1990s, Hopkins and Abigail briefly reconnected, with Abigail appearing in two of her father’s films, “Shadowlands” and “The Remains of the Day”, but they soon grew apart once more.
Hopkins said that he hasn’t spoken to Abigail, now 48, in two decades, and has no idea where she is or what she is doing with her life. “Children don’t like their fathers, you don’t have to love each other.”
On the topic of troubled father-daughter relationships, the legendary actor will star as King Lear in a new BBC adaptation of the Shakespeare classic. The series begins airing next week.
