Key points
Anthony Hopkins says his “door is always open” to his estranged daughter Abigail in his new memoir.
The Silence of the Lambs star writes that he wants his daughter “to be well and happy.”
Hopkins says that his lack of contact with Abigail is “the saddest fact of my life.”
Anthony Hopkins is wishing his daughter well after years of estrangement.
The Silence of the Lambs star reflects on lack of relationship with his only child, Abigail, in his new memoir We Did OK, Kid, and sends her a heartfelt message about two-thirds of the way through the book.
“I hope my daughter knows that my door is always open to her,” Hopkins writes. “I want her to be well and happy. Until the day I die, I will never forget the sight of her in that crib, laughing up at me when I walked in the room the first year of her life, sleeping soundly the night I left. 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.”
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Anthony Hopkins at the ‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ premiere in Chicago on June 20, 2017
The Howards End actor welcomed his first and only daughter during his marriage to his first wife, Petronella Barker, which lasted from 1966 to 1972. He fell out of touch with Abigail after ending his relationship with Barker.
“Aside from sending financial support, I didn’t have contact with Petronella and Abigail for a few years,” Hopkins writes. “It is the saddest fact of my life, and my greatest regret, and yet I feel absolutely sure that it would have been much worse for everyone if I’d stayed.”
Hopkins also explains that he briefly reconnected with his daughter in the 1990s. “As a teenager, Abigail came to stay with me now and then, though she kept her hoodie up over her head much of the time — as teenagers will, I suppose,” Hopkins writes. “I helped her get small acting parts and I tried to make her feel as welcome as I could. I bought her an apartment.”
After she appeared in Hopkins’ films The Remains of the Day and Shadowlands, the actor says that Abigail “drifted away” despite their attempts to rekindle their relationship. “Abigail never seemed able to forgive me for leaving the family when she was a baby,” he writes. “She had her reasons. I can’t blame her for that. That’s life. But it was and is a tremendous source of pain.”
Hopkins previously told The New York Times that Abigail did not respond to his wife’s invitation to visit him. “My wife, Stella, sent an invitation [to Abigail] to come and see us,” he told the outlet. “Not a word of response. So I think, okay, fine. 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.”
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Anthony Hopkins and Abigail Hopkins
In his book, Hopkins says that his regret over his relationship with Abigail led him to abstain from becoming a father again.
“After realizing I was unfit as a father for Abigail, I vowed not to have any more children, and I have kept that promise,” he writes. “I knew I was too selfish. I couldn’t do to another child what I’d done to her.”
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However, he notes that he has acted somewhat paternally toward other loved ones later in life. “But in my old age, once I’d finally learned patience and kindness, I was finally able to be a kind of father figure,” he explains. “And I’ve found myself surrounded since then with people who are outsiders in some way. When you see someone who’s suffering some terrible loneliness, you can say, ‘I know how you feel.’ You can’t give them a shot and make them better. But you can be there.”
Hopkins’ memoir We Did OK, Kid is now available in bookstores.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly