Eric Roberts has used a portion of his new memoir, Runaway Train, to publicly apologize to his sister, Julia Roberts, for a past “asinine” remark he made.
The Dark Knight actor, 68, who has had a rocky relationship with Julia, 56, over the years after becoming estranged from her in 2005, made headlines in 2018 when he declared to Vanity Fair: “If it wasn’t for me, there would be no Julia Roberts.”
He went on to boast that despite the Pretty Woman star’s fame surpassing his, he was the one who walked into New York talent agency William Morris in 1985 and asked: “Which one of you is going to sign my sister Julia?”
“And I am so proud that everybody knows I was first, because I was first by a long shot. I was first to get Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations, so I’m proud of that,” he told the publication.
Six years later, Roberts has since reflected on his bold proclamation, writing in his memoir: “I hope Julia will accept this public apology. It was an asinine thing to say.”
Born the eldest of four, Roberts goes on to discuss how his years-long drug addiction wrecked his relationship with his younger sisters, Julia, Maid in Manhattan actor Lisa Roberts Gillan and half-sister Nancy Motes, who died in 2014.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they suffered from PTSD from when it was dangerous to be around me,” Roberts penned. “Lisa and Julia needed love and protection – instead they got fear and uncertainty.”
“Of course, the biggest consequence of my drug use was losing Emma,” he added of losing custody of his daughter, American Horror Story star Emma Roberts, with whom he shares with his ex Kelly Cunningham.
Roberts and Cunningham separated when Emma, now 33, was an infant. The custody battle led to a rift between him and Julia, who sided with Cunningham and funded her sister-in-law’s legal fees.
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Roberts has previously blamed himself for the breakdown of his relationship with Julia. He told Vanity Fair in 2018: “I was exhausting to be around: complainy, blamey, unable to enjoy enjoyment. Everyone in my world needed a break sometimes, and that must have included Julia.”
Eric recently claimed Julia had instructed him to keep quiet about their private life. Speaking on the podcast Still Here Hollywood, Eric told host Steve Kmetko: “I love my sister, but I can’t talk about her. She don’t want to talk about it.”
He also claimed his daughter “told me not to talk about her”, adding: “I’m not supposed to talk about either of them, but I do.”
Out now, Runaway Train – titled after the 1985 action thriller that landed him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor – recounts the ups and downs of Roberts’s career and his complicated relationship with Julia and Emma.