Rob Schneider leans on faith, holds hope for reconciliation with estranged daughter Elle King
Rob Schneider discusses Christianity, forgiveness, and a higher power as he navigates his strained relationship with daughter Elle King on a podcast.
Rob Schneider's relationship with estranged daughter Elle King may be strained, but he has hope for the future.
Schneider, 62, admitted on Andrew Gold's "Heretics" podcast that he'll always be there for the "very talented" country singer despite challenges with the past.
The "Grown Ups" actor recalled a previous public appearance where he admitted he "wasn't the dad" that his daughter needed.
"I wasn't prepared emotionally for the outpouring of what I received after that," Schneider said. "There's an endemic – and I don't know if in other cultures, but in the United States – an endemic of kids who went off to college and came back and said, 'My daughter doesn't want to have a relationship with me anymore,' or, 'I can't see my grandkids.'"
"It's an attack on the culture in a way that the culture is vulnerable."
In 2024, King shared insight into her at-times "toxic" childhood during an appearance on BunnieXO's "Dumb Blonde" podcast. King confessed that her dad was "just not nice" and would go "four or five years without talking" to her.
"I put out my record and people finally started asking about my dad," she said. "My dad called me, and was like, ‘Don’t f---ing talk about me in the press.'"
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She remembered, "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 ever was talking, like, I would get in f---ing trouble."
"He also didn't have a very good reputation. I don't want to be associated with him. He's just not nice. You can want someone to change so much; you can't control anyone else's actions. You can't control people's feelings. All you can control is how you react and what you do with your feelings, and sometimes I f---ing boil up, and I boil over and I f---ing bust my lid."
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King added, "You try every different angle. I would try letters. I would try soft. I would try yelling … my dad forgot about every single birthday. I spent my 18th birthday in a summer school, and they brought me cupcakes, and I came home and my dad forgot my birthday."
Schneider later apologized for the past, and admitted he wasn't sure if his daughter accepted his words.
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"The door's open, and I would say, you know, I love you and ... I'm there when you want," he said. "We had an exchange, and I'll leave it at that. The thing about, as a parent, you just have to love and be available and be an open door. My door's always open."
He added, "The second she needs me, I'll be there. That's all you can do, and the idea that I'm going to somehow ... that I need something, that I can force my way or force ... no. It has to be something that ... an openness."
Schneider conveyed the importance of recognizing a "higher power" to help guide him through difficult times.
"When things get taken away, and if that's everything – your fame and your attachment to this stuff – if that gets taken from you, and that's all you have, then you have nothing," he said.
"But if you realize there is something higher than all of that and your connection to that, then at that point there's nothing that anybody could do to you."
He added, "The thing about Christianity, it's really … it's love others, and it's really about forgiveness. And forgiveness isn't something you give to somebody else. It's a gift you give to yourself. You can't carry stuff. You have to let go."
King's representatives did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
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