Emma Roberts has always been the beacon of light in her father, Eric Roberts' eyes. In truth, the actor from "Runaway Train" denies any animosity towards the "American Horror Story" actress, whom he shares with his ex-wife Kelly Cunningham. "It's only perceived as complicated by outsiders," Eric explained in an interview on April 5th with Kara Mayer Robinson for "Really Famous." "They don't understand the full context, so they form their own opinions." Eric couldn't help but gush over Emma, adding, "I'm so proud of my kid."
Despite his accolades for his daughter, the 69-year-old acknowledges the challenges he faced in his journey as a father. When Emma was born, Eric admits that he was not in a good emotional state due to his drug abuse. "I was a complete mess," he confessed. "I wasn't emotionally reliable at all."
Eric describes himself as a "car wreck" at that time, but now takes "full responsibility for it." Despite the difficulties in their relationship over the years, he always thinks back to her birth and how it changed his life completely. Eric recalled that newborn Emma was "screaming her head off" until he started singing "Happy Birthday" to her, a song he also sang while Kelly was pregnant.
"She stopped screaming and tried to find my face with her little blind eyes," the actor remembered. "It was the most complete moment maybe I have ever had in my life. That something I did was recognized by a brand-new creature who had my DNA. Oh my god. And there she was, and she already knew me."
Eric continues, "She tried to find me. It was magic. And I'll always have that."
Eric has been candid about his relationship with Emma, detailing that "the loss of relationship with my daughter" was the toughest period of his life. "There's not a pain, there's a sadness for the most likely misunderstandings [that] I'll have forever," he said on the "Inside of You" podcast in 2024. "Because we're human."
Though he's been sober since 1995, Eric revealed that he gained a new perspective on his "sadness" over Emma—who shares a 5-year-old son Rhodes Robert Hedlund with ex-partner Garrett Hedlund—in recent years. "I started accepting that about myself with the birth of my grandchildren," explained Eric, who has two other grandkids through his stepchildren with wife Eliza Roberts, adding that his oldest granddaughter "looks like Emma."
