DWTS Season 33 Alum Not in Contact With Famous Daughter

Heavy/ABC Eric Roberts acknowledged his estranged relationship with his daughter.

Season 33 “Dancing with the Stars” contestant Eric Roberts admits he’s not in contact with his famous daughter, Emma Roberts.

Roberts wrote about the struggles the duo have navigated in his new book, “Runaway Train: Or the Story of My Life So Far.” He also shared insight during an appearance on the October 22 episode of the “Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum” podcast.

On the podcast, he admitted in reflection that the toughest period of his life was “Probably the loss of relationship with my daughter.”

Eric Roberts Feels Sadness Over the Pair’s Estrangement

Roberts explained he doesn’t exactly feel pain over the relationship. Rather, “There’s not a pain. There’s a sadness for the, most likely, misunderstandings we’ll all have forever. Because we’re human.”

Becoming a grandparent has brought up difficult feelings about his struggles with his daughter. He mentioned his oldest grandchild, a girl born to his stepdaughter, looks like his daughter.

“So it reminds me of what I didn’t have. That might be the most painful, personally. Might be,” Roberts admitted.

Rosenbaum suggested the chapter in Roberts’ memoir regarding his relationship with his daughter might be a “big chapter.” Roberts replied, “It should be. The problem is it’s indefinable — so I’ll let you be the judge of that.”

The DWTS Alum Split From His Daughter’s Mother Months After Her Birth

Entertainment Weekly noted Roberts previously opened up about the earlier years of the father-daughter relationship in his book. “I loved my little daughter with the strength of Hercules, despite my own weaknesses,” he wrote.

Roberts continued, “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.”

As Us Weekly indicated, Roberts and his former partner Kelly Cunningham welcomed their daughter in 1991. In his book, he admitted, “I had abandoned Kelly when Emma was just seven months old.”

“I fell madly in love with Emma the first minute I saw her. We were a nice little family for a while, but it didn’t last. I was in too much trouble,” Roberts revealed.

Roberts also wrote, “I was still impossibly coked up when she was born, which explains everything.” He added, “The biggest consequence of my drug use was losing Emma.”

The actor also noted in his book, “I never saw myself as someone who deserved to have physical custody of Emma, not in a million years,” noted Entertainment Weekly.

“We both knew better than that,” he added.

These days, despite the fact they are mostly estranged from one another, Roberts noted that he does interact with his daughter via social media a little bit.

In his book, Entertainment Weekly shared, he revealed, “Emma gave permission for us to interact a little bit with her on her Instagram page.”

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in 2022, Roberts said it was “so much fun” to see his daughter become successful in the entertainment industry.

“She’s never had any training, so she’s been on the job training her whole career, and it’s been lovely for me to watch her become an actor…I love her work,” Roberts added.