Richard Dreyfuss’ son, Ben Dreyfuss, is opening up about his alleged estrangement from his famous father.
“My dad has no money,” Ben, 39, claimed in a since-deleted post shared via X on Thursday, November 13, per USA Today. “If he did, we wouldn’t get it since we’ve been estranged ever since some completed family drama to do with MeToo.”
Ben claims that in 2017, at the height of the viral #MeToo movement, he was managing his Oscar-winning father’s then-Twitter account. At the time, Ben wrote a post on behalf of his dad and in support of his younger brother, Harry, who had accused Kevin Spacey of groping him when he was 18. (Spacey denied the allegations at the time via his lawyer.)
The posts “prompted someone to MeToo my dad,” Ben wrote in the since-deleted posts, adding that Richard subsequently blamed his children for the incident.
“This led to years of acrimony,” Ben wrote via X, USA Today reports.
Richard shares all three of his adult children — Ben, Emily Robin and Harry — with his ex-wife, writer and producer Jeramie Rain. The pair married in the early 1980s and divorced in 1995. Richard moved on with Janelle Lacey, tying the knot in 1999. They divorced in 2005.
On Monday, November 17, Ben published what he claims are emails he sent his father since the alleged incident via his Substack, Calm Down — attempts, he says, to reconnect with Richard, 78.
“I’ve sent plenty since, but he hasn’t replied,” Ben wrote, detailing one alleged January 2024 email as “long and pathetic.”
“He comes off worse than I do,” Ben adds, “but I’m not exactly covered in glory either.”
Ben Dreyfuss and Richard Dreyfuss Getty Images
In the alleged January email, Ben seemingly attempts to explain what he claims occurred during a 2022 family dinner, in which he voiced his frustrations and complicated feelings with others accusing him of benefiting from nepotism. (Richard was one of Hollywood’s most prolific leading men in the 1970s, and has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for his various roles.)
“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 claimed in the alleged email, before going on to admit he called his father a homophobic slur.
In what Ben claims is a response email from his father, Richard allegedly told his son he has “money I’m keeping from you.”
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“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 allegedly wrote. “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.”
According to Ben, that is the last he has heard from his father.
Us Weekly has reached out to Richard for comment.