NEED TO KNOW
Richard Dreyfuss’ son Ben claimed in a Monday, Nov. 17, Substack post that he and his siblings, Emily and Harry, are estranged from their father
On Tuesday, Nov. 18, Emily replied to Ben’s claims and shared her support for her brother
“The thing about absence is it weighs so heavily so constantly. They aren’t gone,” she wrote of her fractured relationship with her father
Richard Dreyfuss‘ daughter, Emily Dreyfuss, is standing by her brother Ben Dreyfuss after he alleged that the siblings don’t speak to their father.
On Nov. 13, Ben, 39, shared several since-deleted posts on X, claiming that he, Emily and their brother Harry “have no money” saved from their father’s successful acting career.
He furthered his claims in a Monday, Nov. 17, blog post on his Calm Down Substack, saying he and his siblings are estranged from Richard. Richard shares the three children with his ex-wife, Jeramie Rain, whom he divorced in 1995.
Emily, 42, has since replied to Ben’s claims with her own series of posts to X.
“Ever since we became estranged from our dad, it’s been nearly impossible for me to write. For the first time, the thing most on my mind was something I couldn’t talk about,” she began on Tuesday, Nov. 18. “Ben and I have different experiences of this sadness, but I’m relieved it’s finally out in the open now.”
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Ben Dreyfuss, Emily Dreyfuss, Harry Dreyfuss, Richard Dreyfuss, and Janelle Lacey attend the first annual Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame ‘Salute to John Williams and Garth Brooks’ at the Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, California, June 23, 2000.
As she continued, she called out particularly “painful” moments in the time that she has been estranged from her father. “When I think it’s my fault for being a bad daughter. When my young child casually asks, ‘Mom why does your dad hate you?’ When I forget and want to tell him something. When someone assumes we’re close and tells me to tell him something,” Emily wrote.
“The thing about absence is it weighs so heavily so constantly. They aren’t gone. They’re in your brain all the time,” she concluded.
Ben claimed in his now-deleted X posts that the tensions began around the #MeToo movement in 2017. Ben was allegedly managing Richard’s Twitter account and wrote a post supporting Harry, now 35, who accused Kevin Spacey of groping him when he was 18 years old. At the time, a lawyer representing Spacey denied the allegations.
The tweet “prompted someone to MeToo my dad,” Ben wrote, alleging that the actor now blames his children for the incident. “This led to years of acrimony,”
Then, in Ben’s Nov. 17 Substack post, he detailed his most recent email exchange with his father, dating back to January 2024. He shared the conversation, and Ben appeared to explain his actions at a 2022 family dinner in San Francisco.
At the dinner, he said he had poorly explained his complicated feelings about public accusations that he benefited from nepotism.
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty
Harry Dreyfuss, Emily Dreyfuss, Janelle Lacey, Richard Dreyfuss, and Ben Dreyfuss attend the world premiere of ‘High Fidelity’ at the El Capitan Theatre, Hollywood, California, March 28, 2000.
Richard allegedly responded to Ben’s message with a largely all-caps email, in which he said he knew that Ben thought Richard was keeping money from him. “AT LEAST KEEP THIS ONE LETTER. IT’LL BE THE LAST ONE UNLESS YOU STOP BEING A COWARD,” Richard allegedly wrote to Ben. “OR START BEING BETTER THAN YOUR BROTHER OR SISTER.”
PEOPLE has reached out to a representative for Richard for comment.
Ben wrote in his Substack blog post that he regrets deleting his original Nov. 13 thread about his estrangement from Richard, and added that he has “always loved” his father.
“I think he’s better than this email,” Ben wrote on Substack. “But it’s been two years, and this appears to be the last email I’m ever going to get from him, so f— it.”
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