Richard Dreyfuss estranged from kids
Richard Dreyfuss' son has claimed he and his siblings have been estranged from the star for years.
Richard Dreyfuss' son has claimed he and his siblings have been estranged from the star for years.
Ben Dreyfuss alleged in a string of now-deleted posts on X that he and his siblings Emily and Harry "have no money" from the 78-year-old actor and haven't been in contact with him for some time due to "some complicated family drama.
The 39-year-old journalist wrote: "My dad has no money.
"If he did, we wouldn't get it since we've been estranged ever since some complicated family drama to do with MeToo."
Ben explained that, at a time when he was managing Richard's X account, he wrote a post in support of his younger brother, who had accused Kevin Spacey of groping him when he was 18 years old - an allegation the American Beauty star's lawyer denied - and the tweet "prompted someone to MeToo my dad".
He wrote in a post seen by USA Today: "That tweet prompted someone to MeToo my dad. He blames us for that. This led to years of acrimony."
Ben - whose mother is Richard's ex-wife Jeramie Rain - has also shared the most recent email exchange between himself and the Jaws actor on his Substack blog.
He wrote: "I’ve sent plenty since, but he hasn’t replied."
Of the alleged January 2024 email exchange, he wrote: "It’s long and pathetic, and he comes off worse than I do, but I’m not exactly covered in glory either."
The messages saw Ben attempt to explain his actions at a 2022 family dinner, where he said he hadn't explained his complicated feelings about accusations of nepotism very well.
He wrote: "I didn’t explain any of this well, and I didn’t even finish the thought before you and Emily started to speak, and we all started to scream at each other about a completely separate tangent over who is to blame for what."
The writer admitted he had called his dad a homophobic slur during the ensuing argument but had "been trying to make amends" for over a year.
The Close Encounters of the Third Kind star seemingly replied with a largely-all caps message stating he believed Ben thought he has "money I'm keeping from you" and accused him and his sister of making a public scene during the dinner.
He wrote: "AT LEAST KEEP THIS ONE LETTER. IT’LL BE THE LAST ONE UNLESS YOU STOP BEING A COWARD. OR START BEING BETTER THAN YOUR BROTHER OR SISTER.
"AS I TOLD YOU, TO START WRITING ME WITHOUT ANY ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN ALL THE THINGS THAT YOU SAID ON THE LAST NIGHT AT THE RESTAURANT. UNTIL YOU ALL WROTE SOMETHING ADDRESSING THE LIES, DISTORTIONS, THAT KEPT A SET OF DIFFERENT FEELINGS, VALUES, KEPT THEM HIDDEN FROM ME, YOU WOULD NOT BE HEARING FROM ME."
Ben wrote: "I love my father. I have always loved him. I think he’s better than this email.
"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."
Emily has also addressed the estrangement on her own X account.
She wrote: "Ben and I have different experiences of this sadness, but I'm relieved it's finally out in the open now."
