Richard Dreyfuss\u2019 son Ben is opening up about his family\u2019s \u201ccomplicated\u201d relationship with the Oscar-winning actor.<\/p>\n
The former Mother Jones reporter, 39, took to social media last week to claim that he and his siblings, Emily and Harry Dreyfuss, have been \u201cestranged\u201d from the 78-year-old Jaws star following an incident that occurred several years ago, the New York Post <\/a>reports.<\/p>\n Richard welcomed his three children with ex-wife Jeramie Rain before the pair\u2019s 1995 divorce.<\/p>\n Never miss the latest entertainment news from Australia and around the world \u2014 download the news.com.au app direct to your phone<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone assumes my siblings and I are wealthy from our dad, and we\u2019re all a bit too uncomfortable to make it clear, but we have no money from my dad,\u201d Ben wrote in a since-deleted tweet on Nov. 13, per USA Today.<\/p>\n \u201cMy dad has no money,\u201d he continued. \u201cIf he did, we wouldn\u2019t get it since we\u2019ve been estranged ever since some complicated family drama to do with MeToo.\u201d<\/p>\n He claimed that the \u201ccomplicated family drama\u201d stemmed from his younger brother\u2019s sexual assault allegations against Kevin Spacey, which Harry, now 35, detailed in a Buzzfeed essay in November 2017 and which Spacey has denied. <\/p>\n Ben said that he shared a post in support of Harry from their father\u2019s Twitter account, which he believes led an unnamed woman to come forward with her own sexual assault allegations against the American Graffiti star.<\/p>\n \u201cThat tweet prompted someone to MeToo my dad. He blames us for that,\u201d Ben wrote in his since-deleted tweet. <\/p>\n \u201cThis led to years of acrimony.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Ben has since taken to his Substack blog to make additional claims about his family\u2019s estrangement from their famous father and to share the most recent email exchange he\u2019s had with the Oscar winner.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve possibly already seen this in the papers, but I don\u2019t talk to my dad anymore,\u201d he wrote on Monday. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s easy to write that like it\u2019s nothing, but it\u2019s been sitting in my head like a monster for years.<\/p>\n \u201cThe simplest way to own this is to show you the last email exchange I had with him \u2013 the last one he actually responded to,\u201d Ben continued. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve sent plenty since, but he hasn\u2019t replied.\u201d<\/p>\n As for the email, it appeared to be from Ben to Richard, sometime after a tense family dinner in San Francisco in 2022. <\/p>\n After apologising for \u201cscreaming at each other\u201d over \u201ca completely separate tangent over who is to blame for what,\u201d Ben received a mostly all-caps response from his father regarding money, Ben, and his sister Emily.<\/p>\n \u201cAT LEAST KEEP THIS ONE LETTER. IT\u2019LL BE THE LAST ONE UNLESS YOU STOP BEING A COWARD. OR START BEING BETTER THAN YOUR BROTHER OR SISTER,\u201d the Goodbye Girl actor wrote in what his son said was their last correspondence.<\/p>\n Ben ended his Substack post by clarifying that he still \u201cloves\u201d his dad.<\/p>\n \u201cI love my father. I have always loved him. I think he\u2019s better than this email,\u201d he concluded. \u201cBut it\u2019s been two years, and this appears to be the last email I\u2019m ever going to get from him, so f \u2013 k it.\u201d<\/p>\n Emily Dreyfuss, 42, weighed in on her brother\u2019s claim with a social media post of her own on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cEver since we became estranged from our dad, it\u2019s been nearly impossible for me to write,\u201d she wrote on X Tuesday. <\/p>\n \u201cFor the first time, the thing most on my mind was something I couldn\u2019t talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBen and I have different experiences of this sadness,\u201d Emily added, \u201cbut I\u2019m relieved it\u2019s finally out in the open now.\u201d<\/p>\n This article originally appeared in the New York Post<\/a> and has been reproduced with permission.<\/p>\n