Anthony Hopkins says he doesn't know or care if he's a grandfather

Hollywood actor Sir Anthony Hopkins has revealed he has no idea whether he is a grandfather or not.

The legendary star, 80, said that after becoming estranged from his only child, daughter Abigail, 48, who is a musician, actor, and theatre director, he has no idea if he has grandkids or even cares.

The pair starred together in Shadowlands and The Remains of the Day in the early 1990s when they reconciled but now the father and daughter have no contact whatsoever.

When Radio Times asked the Westworld star whether he was a granddad, he responded: ‘I don’t have any idea. People break up.

‘Families split and, you know, “Get on with your life’” People make choices. I don’t care one way or the other.’

When questioned about how cold his answer was, he said: ‘Well, it is cold. Because life is cold. It’s like John Osborne’s response when someone said to him, “Mr. Osborne, your play is so offensive”, and he said, “life is offensive”.’

Throughout the interview, Hopkins didn’t seem fazed by having not spoken to his only child in two decades, either, as he put it down to one of those things that happen in life.

Abigail is the daughter of the actor’s first wife, Petronella, who raised her after the pair divorced when she was just four-years-old.

‘Children don’t like their fathers, you don’t have to love each other’, he said, as he went on to describe Hollywood as a ‘toxic’ place.

‘Look how people feel entitled to this, that, and the other; and they can only be surrounded by ‘Yes people’. I don’t want to be surrounded by people like that. The ‘luvvie’ and the kissing cheeks – I can’t stand it. There’s so much hypocrisy.’

The revelation comes as Hopkins stars in BBC’s newest adaptation of King Lear, from BAFTA and Olivier Award-winner Richard Eyre. But it’s not his first time in the Shakespearean production, after playing Lear many years ago at the National Theatre.

Catch King Lear Monday, at 9.30pm, on BBC2.

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