Eric Roberts Admits ‘Sadness’ Over Estranged Relationship With Daughter Emma Roberts

Eric Roberts is opening up about the “sadness” he has in regard to his estrangement from daughter Emma Roberts. The Runaway Train actor, 68, opened up about his strained relationship with the Scream Queens star, 33, on the Tuesday, Oct. 22, episode of Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum, when asked about the toughest time in his life.

“Probably the loss of relationship with my daughter,” answered Eric, who welcomed Emma with ex Kelly Cunningham in 1991. He continued, “There’s not a pain, there’s a sadness for the, most likely, misunderstanding we’ll have forever because we’re human.”

Asked if his relationship with Emma was a “big chapter” in Eric’s new memoir, Runaway Train: Or the Story of My Life So Far, which was published on Sept. 18, the Dancing With the Stars alum responded, “It should be,” adding, “The problem is it’s indefinable — so I’ll let you be the judge of that.”

Eric also shared how his perspective on life shifted as he became a grandfather through wife Eliza Roberts. “Especially the 5-year-old, she was first and she was a girl, and … very vulnerable to me and [she] took a liking to me at 2, 2-and-a-half, in a very strong way,” Eric said of one of the two children he is grandfather to via his marriage. “She also looks like Emma … the same coloring. So it reminds me of what I didn’t have. That might be the most painful, personally. Might be.” Eric is also grandfather to Emma’s 3-year-old son Rhodes, whom she shares with ex Garrett Hedlund.

In Eric’s book, he opens up about how he “couldn’t handle” becoming a parent to Emma when she was born. “I loved my little daughter with the strength of Hercules, despite my own weaknesses,” he wrote, as 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.”

He also clarified that there was never a fight with sister Julia Roberts regarding her taking sides in a custody battle with his ex. “I never saw myself as someone who deserved to have physical custody of Emma, not in a million years,” Eric wrote. “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. I’m very happy to be straightening this out right now.”