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Richard Dreyfuss’ son revealed he’s been estranged from the legendary “Jaws” actor for the past two years.
Ben Dreyfuss revealed he’s not in contact with his father and neither are his two siblings in since-deleted posts on X.
“Everyone assumes my siblings and I are wealthy from our dad and we’re all a bit too uncomfortable to make it clear, but we have no money from my dad,” Ben began, according to USA Today. “My dad has no money. If he did, we wouldn’t get it since we’ve been estranged ever since some complicated family drama to do with MeToo.”
Ben, who works as a journalist, noted that tensions within the family began several years ago after he shared a social media post supporting his brother, Harry Dreyfuss, from his father’s then-Twitter account. Harry had claimed Kevin Spacey groped him amid the wave of MeToo allegations.
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Ben Dreyfuss revealed he and his siblings have been estranged from their father, Oscar winner Richard Dreyfuss, for two years. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Relativity Media)
“That tweet prompted someone to MeToo my dad,” Ben wrote. “He blames us for that.”
Ben later explained why he deleted the X posts on his personal Substack.
“I deleted it because the responses made me uncomfortable – 90% of them were this patronizing, syrupy sympathy I don’t feel I deserve, and the other 10% were from the Krippendorf Hive or some s— being like ‘I love your father and spit his name out of your mouth,’” he explained. “But once I saw it in the newspaper, I realized I’d made myself look ashamed by deleting it. I’m not. I deleted it out of self-loathing, not embarrassment.”
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The Dreyfuss family rift reportedly began after a dispute tied to #MeToo allegations involving actor Kevin Spacey. (Lou Rocco/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
In his Substack post, Ben shared the last email exchange he had with his father two years ago. “I’ve sent plenty since, but he hasn’t replied,” Ben noted.
Ben’s email to Richard focused on an argument that occurred at a family dinner in 2022.
“I didn’t explain any of this well, and I didn’t even finish the thought before you and Emily started to speak, and we all started to scream at each other about a completely separate tangent over who is to blame for what,” Ben wrote in the email, People magazine reported. Ben claimed he had been trying to “make amends” with Richard for over a year after calling “The Goodbye Girl” actor a homophobic slur during the incident.
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Richard Dreyfuss’ children say they no longer speak with the “Jaws” star amid ongoing family tensions and financial cutoff. (Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
In Richard’s response, the “Jaws” actor claimed Ben thought there was money he was keeping from him.
“AT LEAST KEEP THIS ONE LETTER. IT’LL BE THE LAST ONE UNLESS YOU STOP BEING A COWARD. OR START BEING BETTER THAN YOUR BROTHER OR SISTER,” Richard wrote, the outlet reported.
“AS I TOLD YOU, TO START WRITING ME WITHOUT ANY ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN ALL THE THINGS THAT YOU SAID ON THE LAST NIGHT AT THE RESTAURANT. UNTIL YOU ALL WROTE SOMETHING ADDRESSING THE LIES, DISTORTIONS, THAT KEPT A SET OF DIFFERENT FEELINGS, VALUES, KEPT THEM HIDDEN FROM ME, YOU WOULD NOT BE HEARING FROM ME.”
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Richard Dreyfuss starred as oceanographer Matt Hooper in the 1975 blockbuster “Jaws,” the film that launched him to Hollywood fame. (Screen Archives/Getty Images)
Fox News Digital reached out to Richard’s representatives for comment.
The Oscar-winning actor is a father to three kids with his ex-wife Jeramie Rain. The two divorced in 1995 and Richard went on to marry Janelle Lacey for six years. Richard has been married to Svetlana Erokhin since 2006.
Richard’s daughter, Emily Dreyfuss, shared her own statement on X after Ben’s posts and Substack.
“Ever since we became estranged from our dad, it’s been nearly impossible for me to write,” she wrote. “For the first time, the thing most on my mind was something I couldn’t talk about. Ben and I have different experiences of this sadness, but I’m relieved it’s finally out in the open now.”
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