Eric Roberts has used part of his new memoirs, Runaway trainto publicly apologize to his sister Julia Roberts for an earlier “stupid” remark he had made.
The Dark Knight The 68-year-old actor, who has had a difficult relationship with Julia, 56, since splitting from her in 2005, made headlines in 2018 when he declared Vanity Fair: “Without me there would be no Julia Roberts.”
He further boasted that despite the Pretty woman He was the one who, in 1985, when he was even more famous than the other star, walked into the New York talent agency William Morris and asked: “Which of you will sign my sister Julia?”
“And I’m so proud that everyone knows I was the first, because I was the first by a long shot. I was the first to be nominated for a Golden Globe and an Oscar, and I’m proud of that,” he told the publication.
Six years later, Roberts reflected on his brave statement and wrote in his memoirs: “I hope Julia will accept this public apology. It was a foolish statement.”
Roberts, the eldest of four children, goes on to explain how his years of drug addiction destroyed his relationship with his younger sisters Julia, Maid in Manhattan Actress Lisa Roberts Gillan and half-sister Nancy Motes, who died in 2014.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder because it was dangerous to be around me,” Roberts wrote. “Lisa and Julia needed love and protection – instead they became afraid and insecure.”
“Of course, the worst consequence of my drug use was the loss of Emma,” he added, when he lost custody of his daughter. American Horror Story Star Emma Roberts, with whom he is in a relationship with his ex Kelly Cunningham.
Roberts and Cunningham separated when Emma, now 33, was still a toddler. The custody battle led to a rift between him and Julia, who sided with Cunningham and funded her sister-in-law’s legal fees.
Roberts has previously blamed himself for the failure of his relationship with Julia. He said Vanity Fair 2018: “I was exhausting to be around: I complained, blamed people and couldn’t feel joy. Everyone in my world needed a break sometimes, and that must have been Julia too.”
Eric recently claimed that Julia had instructed him to keep quiet about her private life. In the podcast Still here, HollywoodEric told host Steve Kmetko: “I love my sister, but I can’t talk about her. She doesn’t want to talk about it.”
He also claimed that his daughter told him not to talk about her, adding: “I shouldn’t talk about them, but I do.”
Now available, Runaway train – named after the 1985 action thriller that earned him his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor – tells the story of the ups and downs of Roberts’ career and his complicated relationship with Julia and Emma.
