{"id":47,"date":"2025-11-07T16:37:58","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T21:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/?p=47"},"modified":"2025-11-07T16:39:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T21:39:17","slug":"anthony-hopkins-says-estranged-daughter-abigail-ignored-attempt-to-reconcile-it-broke-my-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/2025\/11\/anthony-hopkins-says-estranged-daughter-abigail-ignored-attempt-to-reconcile-it-broke-my-heart.html","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Hopkins Says Estranged Daughter Abigail Ignored Attempt to Reconcile: \u201cIt Broke My Heart\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_50\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-50\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-50\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/458\/2025\/11\/Anthony-Hopkins_credit-Left-John-Gress-Media-Inc-Shutterstock-Right-abigail_hopkins_official-Instagram.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-50\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: John Gress Media Inc \/ Shutterstock.com | Right: @abigail_hopkins_official \/ Instagram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins is opening up about one of the most painful parts of his life\u2014his long estrangement from his daughter, Abigail Hopkins. In his new memoir, <em>We Did OK<\/em>, <em>Kid<\/em>, the 87-year-old star reflects on decades of distance, regret, and a love that has endured even through silence.<\/p>\n<p>Hopkins shares that his split from his first wife, actress Petronella Barker, in 1972 set the stage for the fractured relationship. \u201cOur opposing personalities and my alcoholism doomed the relationship from the start,\u201d he wrote. When their daughter Abigail was just 14 months old, Hopkins left home. \u201cI looked down at her and whispered goodbye,\u201d he recalls. \u201cIt is the saddest fact of my life, and my greatest regret.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The two-time Academy Award winner admits he tried to make amends when Abigail was nine, but it was \u201cawkward.\u201d Though they briefly reconnected in the 1990s\u2014Abigail even appeared in his films <em>Shadowlands<\/em> and <em>The Remains of the Day<\/em>\u2014their reconciliation didn\u2019t last. \u201cWe have never really been close,\u201d Abigail told <em>The Telegraph<\/em> in 2006. \u201cWe\u2019ve never discussed big life issues\u2026 our relationship was always so sporadic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In recent interviews, Hopkins has been both candid and conflicted. Speaking to <em>The New York Times<\/em> about his memoir, he said his wife Stella reached out to Abigail with an invitation to reconnect, but \u201cnot a word of response.\u201d Despite the hurt, Hopkins insisted, \u201cI wish her well, but I\u2019m not going to waste blood over that. If you want to waste your life being in resentment, fine, go ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hopkins said he refuses to dwell on bitterness. \u201cI could carry resentment over the past, but that&#8217;s death. You&#8217;re not living,\u201d he told the paper. \u201cWe are imperfect. We&#8217;re not saints. We\u2019re all sinners and saints or whatever we are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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 \u201cpossibly\u201d reconciling, adding, \u201cIt would have to be a two-way thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hopkins now says he\u2019ll always leave the door open. \u201cI hope my daughter knows that my door is always open to her,\u201d he wrote in We Did OK, Kid. \u201cI want her to be well and happy. I will always be sorry for hurting her when I left the family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the road between father and daughter remains broken, Hopkins\u2019 reflections reveal a man still seeking grace\u2014hoping that, someday, healing might find its way through the cracks of time, forgiveness, and love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins is opening up about one of the most painful parts of his life\u2014his 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&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":462,"featured_media":50,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Anthony Hopkins Says Estranged Daughter Abigail Ignored Attempt to Reconcile: \u201cIt Broke My Heart\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Anthony Hopkins opens up about his heartbreaking estrangement from daughter Abigail, saying his door is \u201calways open\u201d despite silence.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/2025\/11\/anthony-hopkins-says-estranged-daughter-abigail-ignored-attempt-to-reconcile-it-broke-my-heart.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anthony Hopkins Says Estranged Daughter Abigail Ignored Attempt to Reconcile: \u201cIt Broke My Heart\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Anthony Hopkins opens up about his heartbreaking estrangement from daughter Abigail, saying his door is \u201calways open\u201d despite silence.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/2025\/11\/anthony-hopkins-says-estranged-daughter-abigail-ignored-attempt-to-reconcile-it-broke-my-heart.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Ties That Bind\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-07T21:37:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-07T21:39:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/458\/2025\/11\/Anthony-Hopkins_credit-Left-John-Gress-Media-Inc-Shutterstock-Right-abigail_hopkins_official-Instagram.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beliefnet Contributors\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Anthony Hopkins Says Estranged Daughter Abigail Ignored Attempt to Reconcile: \u201cIt Broke My Heart\u201d","description":"Anthony Hopkins opens up about his heartbreaking estrangement from daughter Abigail, saying his door is \u201calways open\u201d despite silence.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/2025\/11\/anthony-hopkins-says-estranged-daughter-abigail-ignored-attempt-to-reconcile-it-broke-my-heart.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Anthony Hopkins Says Estranged Daughter Abigail Ignored Attempt to Reconcile: \u201cIt Broke My Heart\u201d","og_description":"Anthony Hopkins opens up about his heartbreaking estrangement from daughter Abigail, saying his door is \u201calways open\u201d despite silence.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/2025\/11\/anthony-hopkins-says-estranged-daughter-abigail-ignored-attempt-to-reconcile-it-broke-my-heart.html","og_site_name":"The Ties That Bind","article_published_time":"2025-11-07T21:37:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-11-07T21:39:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/458\/2025\/11\/Anthony-Hopkins_credit-Left-John-Gress-Media-Inc-Shutterstock-Right-abigail_hopkins_official-Instagram.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Beliefnet Contributors","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/2025\/11\/anthony-hopkins-says-estranged-daughter-abigail-ignored-attempt-to-reconcile-it-broke-my-heart.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/2025\/11\/anthony-hopkins-says-estranged-daughter-abigail-ignored-attempt-to-reconcile-it-broke-my-heart.html","name":"Anthony Hopkins Says Estranged Daughter Abigail Ignored Attempt to Reconcile: \u201cIt Broke My Heart\u201d","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/2025\/11\/anthony-hopkins-says-estranged-daughter-abigail-ignored-attempt-to-reconcile-it-broke-my-heart.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/2025\/11\/anthony-hopkins-says-estranged-daughter-abigail-ignored-attempt-to-reconcile-it-broke-my-heart.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/458\/2025\/11\/Anthony-Hopkins_credit-Left-John-Gress-Media-Inc-Shutterstock-Right-abigail_hopkins_official-Instagram.jpg","datePublished":"2025-11-07T21:37:58+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-07T21:39:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/#\/schema\/person\/aea408b5be59bf6e05556b03859b6b79"},"description":"Anthony Hopkins opens up about his heartbreaking estrangement from daughter Abigail, saying his door is \u201calways open\u201d despite silence.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/2025\/11\/anthony-hopkins-says-estranged-daughter-abigail-ignored-attempt-to-reconcile-it-broke-my-heart.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/2025\/11\/anthony-hopkins-says-estranged-daughter-abigail-ignored-attempt-to-reconcile-it-broke-my-heart.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/2025\/11\/anthony-hopkins-says-estranged-daughter-abigail-ignored-attempt-to-reconcile-it-broke-my-heart.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/458\/2025\/11\/Anthony-Hopkins_credit-Left-John-Gress-Media-Inc-Shutterstock-Right-abigail_hopkins_official-Instagram.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/458\/2025\/11\/Anthony-Hopkins_credit-Left-John-Gress-Media-Inc-Shutterstock-Right-abigail_hopkins_official-Instagram.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Left: John Gress Media Inc \/ Shutterstock.com | Right: @abigail_hopkins_official \/ Instagram"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/2025\/11\/anthony-hopkins-says-estranged-daughter-abigail-ignored-attempt-to-reconcile-it-broke-my-heart.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Anthony Hopkins Says Estranged Daughter Abigail Ignored Attempt to Reconcile: \u201cIt Broke My Heart\u201d"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/","name":"The Ties That Bind","description":"Exploring how news and culture shape our families and marriages","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/#\/schema\/person\/aea408b5be59bf6e05556b03859b6b79","name":"Beliefnet Staff","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/author\/skirk"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions\/59"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thetiesthatbind\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}