Actor Rob Schneider is apologizing to his daughter Elle King after the 35-year-old singer shared details of their tumultuous relationship.
“I just want to tell my daughter, Elle, I love you, and I wish I was the father in my 20s that you needed and clearly I wasn’t and I hope you can forgive me for my shortcomings,” Schneider said in an interview with Tucker Carlson. “I love you completely. I love you entirely.
“I wish you the best. I feel terrible and I just want you to know that I don’t take anything you say personally,” the “Saturday Night Live” alum added.
Schneider’s comments come after King appeared on Bunnie Xo’s “Dumb Blonde” podcast and said that her father was “very toxic” figure in her life.
Schneider shares King with ex-wife London King, a former model. King told Bunnie Xo that she was primarily raised by her mother and stepfather.
“If I would ever spend a summer with my dad it would be on a movie set. I would just get lost in the shuffle. If I ever messed up a shot, if I was ever talking, I would get in trouble,” King said.
According to the four-time Grammy nominee, Schneider was critical of her size and sent her away to a program where she was fed a “slice of turkey and steamed vegetables” for every meal and forced to work out “all day long.”
King said Schneider took issue with her tattoos, recounting how she had to cover her arms with sweaters during a heat wave.
“(He) was very anti-tattoos, or, like, any form of self-expression that differed from what he wanted for me,” King said. “Not that he ever thought about me.”
At one point, King and Schneider went “four or five years” without speaking. King said that’s when she signed her first record deal.
“He never helped me. I never wanted his help. He also didn’t have a very good reputation,” King told Bunnie Xo. “I don’t want to be associated with him. He’s just not nice.”
King, who is mom of 2-year-old son, Lucky, said she is determined to do things differently with her own child.
“My dad forgot about every single birthday,” she said. “I spent my 18th birthday in a summer school and they brought me cupcakes and when I came home, my dad had forgotten. I put every ounce of my being into my son’s birthday because I know how it feels to be forgotten on your birthday.”
Schneider and his wife, Patricia, are parents of daughters Miranda, 11, and Madeline, 3.
