Sir Anthony Hopkins has opened up about his estranged relationship with his only daughter, Abigail.
The actor, 87, has one child named Abigail with his first wife, Petronella Barker, whom he married in 1966 and divorced in 1972.
Opening up about their estranged relationship, he admitted that he had reached out to his daughter previously, but to no avail.
He told The New York Times newspaper that his wife, Stella Arroyave, whom he has been married to since 2003, reached out.
‘My wife, Stella, sent an invitation [to Abigail] to come and see us,’ he said.
‘Not a word of response. So I think, okay, fine.’
He added that he wouldn’t ‘waste blood’ over their situation: ‘I wish her well, but I’m not going to waste blood over that. If you want to waste your life being in resentment, fine, go ahead.’
He added that he wasn’t going to carry any feelings of ‘resentment’ and acknowledged that he was ‘imperfect’.
‘I could carry resentment over the past, but that’s death. You’re not living. You have to acknowledge one thing: that we are imperfect.We’re not saints. We’re all sinners and saints or whatever we are. We do the best we can.
‘Life is painful. Sometimes people get hurt. Sometimes we get hurt. But you can’t live like that. You have to say, Get over it. And if you can’t get over it, fine, good luck to you. I have no judgment. But I did what I could. So that’s it. That’s all I want to say.’
When asked if he hoped his daughter would read hisnew memoir, We Did OK, Kid, which will be published on November 4, he said he didn’t care.
‘I’m not going to answer that. No. I don’t care.’
When the reporter said they’d move on, he said: ‘Please. I want you to. Because I don’t want to hurt her.’
The actor has previously commented on his daughter, who is now in her mid-fifties, admitting he has no idea what her life is like now.
In 2018, when asked by Radio Times if he is a grandfather now, Sir Anthony replied: ‘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.’
In another interview in 2002, with the American DJ Howard Stern, Sir Anthony said of his daughter. “I hardly ever hear from her.
‘She probably has good reasons. I guess we are estranged. I hope she is well. She is too busy and has to do her own thing. I think she is in England somewhere. Life is life. You get on with it.’
In a 2006 interview with The Telegraph, Abigail, who is a singer, said she could possibly be open to a reunion.
‘It would have to be a two-way thing, though. I don’t know how I would feel about it. We have never really been close. We’ve never discussed big life issues. Because, well, our relationship was always so sporadic. I’ve never felt I could discuss those sorts of things with him.’
She added that she saw her father once a year growing up, until they fell out when she was 16, about her mother.
‘I would see him, but maybe once a year. There is a little bit of sadness but I have to get on with my life. It has always been like that. See him, and then not. Then, when I was 16, there was some row,’ she said.
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