When Anthony Hopkins divorced his first wife, Petronella Barker, he abandoned his 14-month-old kid. Years later, the father and daughter were reunited, but the anguish of his absence persisted, and they eventually stopped speaking to one other.

According to The Telegraph, Anthony hasn’t spoken to his daughter, Abigail Hopkins, in over 20 years, and she has spoken about the impact of their lack of communication on her as a youngster.

In 2006, she told the Telegraph: “I would see him, but maybe once a year. There is a little bit of sadness but I have to get on with my life.

“It has always been like that. See him, and then not. Then, when I was 16, there was some row.”

Anthony Hopkins has acknowledged to dealing with alcoholism throughout his early acting career, claiming that he “should have died in Wales, drunk or something like that.”

He admitted that he was tough to deal with at the time since he was frequently hungover, but he turned his life around in 1975 after speaking with a woman from Alcoholics Anonymous and has been clean ever since.

His connection with his only child did not improve despite his efforts to clean up.

When she was 16, she and Hopkins had a major falling out over Hopkins’ treatment of her mother. When Abigail was 18, she dropped out of university and had a nervous breakdown.

She stated, “I bottled up so much emotion in my childhood it caused my mind to go. I came very close to killing myself. It was the worst time I can remember.”

“I totally abused my mind and body. The root cause was the fact that my father and I had an intermittent relationship when I was young. I was angry and there was a lot of grieving going on.”

During the 1990s, the two reconciled, with Abigail appearing in brief cameo appearances in two of Oscar winner Anthony’s films.

Abigail has participated in twelve films and television programs, including Remains Of The Day and Shadowlands (1993), in which she co-starred with her father, and Romeo Vs Juliet (2015).

Abigail claimed that she and her father kept to themselves and hardly chatted on set while discussing their filming experience.

Anthony Hopkins has been tight-lipped about his connection with his daughter, implying that previous wounds haven’t healed.

Despite multiple journeys to London coinciding with her performances, Abigail, a singer-songwriter residing in London, said that her father had never attended any of her gigs.

She did say, though, that if her father was also interested in healing their connection, she was open to it. ““It would have to be a two-way thing, though,” she explained. “I don’t know how I would feel about it. We have never really been close. We’ve never discussed big life issues. Because, well, our relationship was always so sporadic. I’ve never felt I could discuss those sorts of things with him.”

Anthony told the Radio Times in 2018 that he had no idea if he had any grandkids.

Hopkins told the Radio Times, “I don’t have an 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.”

“Well, it is cold. Because life is cold,” he said when told it sounded cold. “It’s like John Osborne’s response when someone said to him, ‘Mr Osborne, your play is offensive,’ and he said, ‘Life is offensive’.”