Eric Roberts Talks ‘Loss of Relationship’ With Daughter Emma Roberts

Eric Roberts Monica Schipper/Getty Images for King Richard Productions

Eric Roberts has opened up about his strained relationship with his daughter, Emma Roberts.

While speaking about his new memoir, “Runaway Train: Or the Story of My Life So Far,” during the Tuesday, October 22, episode of the “Inside of You” podcast with Michael Rosenbaum, Eric, 68, was asked about the toughest time of his life.

The actor, who has addressed his relationship with Emma, 33, in his new book, answered with, “Probably the loss of relationship with my daughter.”

When Rosenbaum, 52, pushed the subject further, Eric, who welcomed Emma with ex Kelly Cunningham in 1991, clarified his feelings.

“There’s not a pain, there’s a sadness for the, most likely, misunderstanding we’ll have forever because we’re human,” Eric, who was eliminated as a contestant on season 33 of Dancing With the Stars on October 8, said.

Rosenbaum also asked Eric if the topic of his relationship with Emma presents as a “big chapter” within Eric’s memoir, published on September 18. “It should be,” Eric responded. “The problem is it’s indefinable — so I’ll let you be the judge of that.”

Emma Roberts Valentina Frugiuele/Getty Images

In the book, per Entertainment Weekly, Eric wrote, “I loved my little daughter with the strength of Hercules, despite my own weaknesses. However, I couldn’t handle the realities of an infant coming into my life, and I couldn’t handle being a parent! I’m still not a father figure. Emma, on the other hand, certainly knows what that role is — now grown up and a mom herself. She’s that person to her first child, Rhodes.”

The section continues, “I never saw myself as someone who deserved to have physical custody of Emma, not in a million years. We both knew better than that. Kelly never claimed I was trying to get physical custody of Emma. There really was no custody fight. I’m very happy to be straightening this out right now.”

The podcast conversation also flowed into how Eric’s perspective on life was altered after the arrival of the grandchildren he shares with wife, Eliza Roberts. “Especially the five-year-old, she was first and she was a girl, and … very vulnerable to me and [she] took a liking to me at two, two-and-a-half, in a very strong way,” Eric said, referring to one of the two children he is a grandfather to through his marriage. “She also looks like Emma … the same coloring. So it reminds me of what I didn’t have. That might be the most painful, personally. Might be.”

Eric Roberts, Emma Roberts and Eliza Roberts in 2004 Gregg DeGuire/WireImage

Eric is also a grandfather to Emma’s son, Rhodes, 3, whom she shares with her ex Garrett Hedlund.

Eric remained tight-lipped while discussing his memoir with Us Weekly right after his DWTS performance on September 24, unable to share whether his family, including sister Julia Roberts, have read the book.

“I’ll let you ask them,” he told Us at the time.

Eric’s memoir explores his struggles with addiction as well as his relationship with Julia, 56. During a September 25 interview on News Nation right after the book’s release, Eric noted that he hadn’t spoken to Julia “in a week” due to his travel commitments to DWTS.

When quizzed on whether he’s in “regular” communication with Julia — and what Eric anticipated her thoughts may be after reading the book — Eric failed to offer any details. “You’ll have to ask her, buddy,” he said. “If you want her opinion, ask her her opinion. What you have to understand is [that] my sister and my daughter want to speak for themselves. So I would be trespassing.”

Eric’s book includes text that criticizes Julia’s acclaimed performance in 1989’s Steel Magnolias. “Julia was good in Mystic Pizza, great in Pretty Woman, but not so much in Steel Magnolias, in my opinion, even though it brought Julia her first Academy Award nomination,” Eric wrote, per Entertainment Weekly.