Key points
Ben Dreyfuss claimed that he no longer speaks with his father Richard Dreyfuss.
The journalist shared a Substack post that contained transcripts of a 2024 email that he claimed was the last communication he received from his father.
Ben Dreyfuss said his relationship with his dad has been strained since MeToo allegations complicated their dynamic in 2017.
Richard Dreyfuss‘ son says that he no longer speaks with the Jaws star.
Ben Dreyfuss, a journalist who previously worked at Mother Jones, detailed his estrangement from his father in a Substack post on Monday.
“I don’t talk to my dad anymore,” he wrote. “It’s easy to write that like it’s nothing, but it’s been sitting in my head like a monster for years.”
Representatives for Richard Dreyfuss and Ben Dreyfuss did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly’s request for comment.
Frazer Harrison/Getty for Relativity Media
Ben Dreyfuss and Richard Dreyfuss in Los Angeles on Aug. 8, 2013
The journalist previously detailed his alleged estrangement from the Close Encounters of the Third Kind actor in a series of now-deleted X posts on Thursday.
Ben said that the saga began when his brother, Harry Dreyfuss, accused Kevin Spacey of groping him at a 2008 party in 2017. (A lawyer for Spacey told BuzzFeed that the actor “absolutely denies the allegations” at the time.) Ben said that he ran his father’s X (then Twitter) account at the time, and shared a post supporting Harry after making his allegations public.
“That tweet prompted someone to MeToo my dad. He blames us for that,” Ben said in a since-deleted X post (per USA Today). “This led to years of acrimony.” (The American Graffiti actor was accused of sexual harassment less than a week after Harry’s allegations went public, and has denied the allegations.)
In his Substack post, Ben shared what he claimed was his final correspondence from his father to give a sense of their dynamic, and why the journalist feels that he personally does not “deserve sympathy” as he’s “not blameless” in the conflict.
Ben said that Richard’s email was “the last one he actually responded to” and that he has “sent plenty” of messages to his father since he last received a reply.
“It’s long and pathetic,” Ben said of the email thread. “And he comes off worse than I do, but I’m not exactly covered in glory either.”
In an alleged email to his father dated Jan. 23, 2024, Ben addressed the tension head-on. “I’m obviously rather hurt by the fact that you don’t want to reconcile with me,” he wrote. “I said once in that email that I wanted to sever ties with you but that was just a rhetorical flourish. It had never occurred to me that we actually would become estranged. I still have a hard time completely understanding it. I know you love me. I know I hurt you, but you’re a smart guy. You understand how people can love each other and also hurt each other.”
The journalist went on to apologize for a past outburst, and alleged that his father’s current wife, Svetlana Erokhin, sent the actor’s ex-wife (and Ben’s mother), Jeramie Rain, a multitude of family photos that included Ben and his siblings.
“All these pieces of evidence in the observable universe suggest that you do not want to reconcile with me,” he wrote. “I think you miss me — I hope you do at least — and that you’re mad and waiting for me to say something that solves it all. I wish I could say whatever those words are.”
Richard’s alleged response accused Ben of calling him a homophobic slur in a restaurant, and said that his son (and daughter Emily) thought they “could demand money” from Erokhin.
“You had no problem yelling at the top of your lungs that I was a ‘f—–,'” the Goodbye Girl star allegedly wrote. “YOU BOTH ADMITTED TO LYING TO ME ABOUT HOW YOU HATED ME FOR TEN YEARS.”
Presley Ann/Getty for TCM
Richard Dreyfuss in Los Angeles on April 14, 2023
The actor allegedly went on to write, in all caps, that Ben and Emily “would not be hearing from” him until they “all wrote something addressing the lies, distortions, that kept a set of different feelings [and] values hidden” from him.
Richard allegedly continued, “DON’T BOTHER TO WRITE IF YOU DON’T DO AS I ASKED. IF I WIN THE LOTTERY BEFORE I DIE IT WON’T CAUSE ME TO REWRITE MY WILL. I WILL HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO SEND TO YOU BUT I WON’T.”
The Mr. Holland’s Opus star allegedly concluded, “AT LEAST KEEP THIS ONE LETTER. IT’LL BE THE LAST ONE UNLESS YOU STOP BEING A COWARD. OR START BEING BETTER THAN YOUR BROTHER OR SISTER.”
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Ben also included his response to his father’s alleged last email. The journalist wrote that he and his siblings “were told you had no money years ago,” but argued that he didn’t think the money was the root of the issue.
“I understand you have no money and I understand that if you did have money you wouldn’t give us any,” Ben wrote. “And yet here I am trying to fix this with you, because the money isn’t the point. The point is—the point was—the money was supposed to be proof that you loved me because you sure as s— didn’t know anything about my life.”
The journalist also admitted that he had called his father a slur, which he “immediately” regretted. “I flipped you off and called you a f—–,” he wrote. “I have thought about this moment endlessly since then. I don’t know 100% why I did it. I’d never done that before. It’s not a [normal] thing I do. But I did it then. And I have a theory. I wanted to hurt you.”
Ben concluded in his last attached email, “If you want this to be the end, then you want this to be the end, and it makes me sad, but it also makes me feel sorry for you. I said in the last letter that we are so terrifically alike, and I meant that, but I hope to God that I am never as consumed with blind rage as you seem to be at me. I wish you the best and give Svetlana my love.”
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly