Anthony Hopkins, the veteran actor who is probably best known for his role in the 1991 film “The Silence of the Lambs” as Hannibal Lecter, has opened up about the biggest source of regret in his life. Speaking in an interview, the Welsh Hollywood star honestly revealed that he regrets the way he has hurt people in his life who are close to him.
Anthony Hopkins Regrets Hurting His Loved Ones
While in discussion with the BBC to promote his upcoming memoir “We Did OK, Kid,” Hopkins reveals that he struggled with alcoholism during his early career. He would pick fights with the cast and crew on productions and found that alcohol brought out the worst in him. In particular, he acknowledges that he was not the best husband to his first two wives.
“That’s the ugly side of alcoholism,” he writes in the memoir. “It brought out a brutal side of me. I’m not proud of it at all.”
He was previously married to Norwegian actor Petronella Barker between 1966 to 1972 and then Jennifer Lynton from 1973 until 2002. He has been married to his current wife, Stella Arroyave, since 2003.
When asked about his biggest regrets in the interview, Hopkins quickly replies that it is the way he has treated those closest to him over the years.. “People I’ve hurt over the years, the stupid things I did,” he says.
Anthony Hopkins Talks About His Estranged Daughter
GettyIn the memoir, reported by the BBC, Hopkins also speaks about the way he walked out on his only child during the late 1960s when he left his first wife. The pair remain estranged and have only seen each other fleetingly since she was one year old.
He writes “after realising I was unfit as a father for Abigail, I vowed not to have any more children… I couldn’t do to another child what I’d done to her”.
In recent years, Hopkins has come to realize the hurt he caused her and seemingly understands why the relationship has not been mended despite his attempts. A 2018 performance in the 2018 television adaptation of “King Lear” by Richard Eyre was the catalyst for this realization. Lear’s words to his daughter Cordelia — played by Florence Pugh — triggered an emotional reaction.
Writing in the memoir, the actor explains: “The line that hit me harder than perhaps any other I’ve ever spoken was ‘I did her wrong’. Saying those words, I felt deeply, perhaps for the first time in my life, how I had hurt my own daughter.”
“I remembered how as a baby she’d lit up when I walked into the room. I remembered how I said goodbye to her the night I walked out. I remembered how I had tried and failed to win her back later. I remembered how I had given up. And as Lear, but also as myself, I began to cry.”
He concludes that section of the book, saying, “I hope my daughter knows that my door is always open to her.”
