NEED TO KNOW
- Anthony Hopkins writes in his memoir that he regrets saying in a 2018 interview that he doesn’t “care” about his daughter’s life
- “I will always be sorry for hurting her when I left the family,” the actor writes in the book
- Hopkins had daughter Abigail, now 57, with his first wife, Petronella Barker
Anthony Hopkins is looking back at a “regrettable interview” in which he said he did not “care” about his estranged daughter Abigail’s life.
The Oscar winner, 87, opens up about sobriety, family, his movie career and more in his new memoir, We Did OK, Kid, out now. Hopkins writes about his decades-long estrangement from Abigail, now 57, his daughter from his first marriage.
“Though I’ve avoided talking about it, the estrangement has shown up in tabloids in horrific, untrue ways. Some tabloids said I got her into drugs or rejected her as a child,” writes the actor.
“It is true that I have spoken about her in the press coldly, saying in one regrettable interview that after 20 years of not hearing from her, I no longer knew where she was or if she’d ever married or had children, and that at that point I did not care.”
Timothy Hiatt/Getty; Albert L. Ortega/Getty
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Hopkins adds, “Though it’s no excuse, I know that was the coldness of my grandfather coming out: Move on! No use crying! Onward! Don’t waste time in the past! That hardness is my default.”
The Silence of the Lambs star went on to say that he hopes Abigail “knows that my door is always open to her” and that “I want her to be well and happy.”
“I will always be sorry for hurting her when I left the family, even as I believe to this day that I had no choice,” he writes in the book.
Additionally, Hopkins writes that Abigail “never seemed able to forgive me for leaving the family when she was a baby,” and “I can’t blame her for that.”
Cover photography by Martin Schoeller / AUGUST
Hopkins, who married his third wife, Stella Arroyave, in 2003, said in a 2018 interview with the Radio Times that he didn’t know if he had grandchildren. “I don’t have any idea,” he said at the time. “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.”
In the interview, Hopkins was told his response seemed cold, to which he responded: “Well, it is cold. Because life is cold.”
Shortly after that, the actor clarified his comments, saying it wasn’t coming from a “cold” place. “No, I wasn’t cold. I’m not cold. Her choice is her choice,” he told the U.K.’s The Times.
“You know, I did the best I could, but you know, okay, I think if somebody doesn’t want to be part of my life, fine. Go and do whatever you want,” he told the outlet at the time. “I wish her well and all that, but I don’t want to talk about my daughter. Those things are over.”
“I’ve got no blame. People do what they do,” he added. “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.’ ”
PEOPLE reached out to a rep for Abigail on Tuesday, Nov. 4, but did not hear back.
We Did OK, Kid: A Memoir is available now wherever books are sold.