Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins is opening up about one of the most painful parts of his life—his long estrangement from his daughter, Abigail Hopkins. In his new memoir, We Did OK, Kid, the 87-year-old star reflects on decades of distance, regret, and a love that has endured even through silence.

Hopkins shares that his split from his first wife, actress Petronella Barker, in 1972 set the stage for the fractured relationship. “Our opposing personalities and my alcoholism doomed the relationship from the start,” he wrote. When their daughter Abigail was just 14 months old, Hopkins left home. “I looked down at her and whispered goodbye,” he recalls. “It is the saddest fact of my life, and my greatest regret.”

The two-time Academy Award winner admits he tried to make amends when Abigail was nine, but it was “awkward.” Though they briefly reconnected in the 1990s—Abigail even appeared in his films Shadowlands and The Remains of the Day—their reconciliation didn’t last. “We have never really been close,” Abigail told The Telegraph in 2006. “We’ve never discussed big life issues… our relationship was always so sporadic.”

In recent interviews, Hopkins has been both candid and conflicted. Speaking to The New York Times about his memoir, he said his wife Stella reached out to Abigail with an invitation to reconnect, but “not a word of response.” Despite the hurt, Hopkins insisted, “I wish her well, but I’m not going to waste blood over that. If you want to waste your life being in resentment, fine, go ahead.”

Hopkins said he refuses to dwell on bitterness. “I could carry resentment over the past, but that’s death. You’re not living,” he told the paper. “We are imperfect. We’re not saints. We’re all sinners and saints or whatever we are.”

Abigail, now 57, has largely stayed quiet about her father in recent years. She battled Stage 3 bowel cancer during the pandemic, later releasing a charity album to benefit cancer research. Back in 2006, she said she was open to “possibly” reconciling, adding, “It would have to be a two-way thing.”

Hopkins now says he’ll always leave the door open. “I hope my daughter knows that my door is always open to her,” he wrote in We Did OK, Kid. “I want her to be well and happy. I will always be sorry for hurting her when I left the family.”

While the road between father and daughter remains broken, Hopkins’ reflections reveal a man still seeking grace—hoping that, someday, healing might find its way through the cracks of time, forgiveness, and love.