Richard Dreyfuss doesn’t get along with his children, according to his eldest son.
Ben Dreyfuss acknowledged his estrangement from the “Jaws” star in a now-deleted tweet last week, claiming the 78-year-old doesn’t have “money” to give to him and his siblings Harry and Emily.
Ben, 39, wrote: “Even if he had the money, we wouldn’t have it because the complicated family drama surrounding MeToo has kept us estranged.”
According to USA Today, when Harry tweeted from his account supporting Harry’s claim that he was groped by Kevin Spacey when he was 18 in 2017, the social media upload explained that Richard’s “prompted someone to MeToo.”
Mr Benn wrote that the Oscar winner accused author Jessica Teich of accusing Mr Richard of exposing him, an allegation he “sympathetically” denied, which led to “years of sour relations” within the family.
On Monday, Ben released the last alleged email exchange between him and Richard via Substack.
“It’s long and pathetic and he’s in a worse situation than me, but I’m not necessarily all gloried either,” Ben admitted of the January 2024 altercation.
During a heated conversation, the two discussed a controversial family dinner in 2022 during which Ben talked about being called Nepobaby.
“I couldn’t really explain any of this, I couldn’t even finish my thought before you and Emily started talking, and we all started screaming at each other about a whole other story about who was responsible for what,” Ben recalled, admitting that he called his father a homophobic slur at the time.
He claimed he had been “trying to make amends” for over a year.
Richard allegedly replied with an all-caps rant: “At least keep this one letter. It will be your last letter unless you stop being a coward. Or start being a better person than your brothers and sisters.”
The actor said, “As I said, don’t try to explain everything you said at the restaurant last night and start writing to me. Until you all write something that addresses the lies and distortions that have held you to a different set of emotions, values, keep them hidden from me, you won’t hear a word from me.”
Ben told readers, “I love my dad. I’ve always loved him. I think he’s better than this email. But it’s been two years and it looks like this is the last email I’ll get from him. So don’t worry.”
Emily later tweeted that she was “relieved that” the family drama was “out in the open.”
“Writing has been almost impossible for me since I became estranged from my father. For the first time, the last thing on my mind was not being able to talk. Ben and I have different experiences with this grief,” she wrote.
Representatives for Richard did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
Last year, Richard made headlines for making transphobic and misogynistic comments at a Jaws event, and it appears Ben has made similar comments through X.
“Wow, I just looked at my phone and learned about the disgusting and outrageous acts of one of my relatives,” he tweeted in May 2024.
“Well, now you know why I refused to give him my Twitter password for 10 years lol,” Ben added. “This will be my only comment on this matter. Thank you.”
He later claimed that the tweet was about Emily getting an Android smartphone.
“My father and I disagree on many things,” Ben wrote. “But this is a free country. People are allowed to have different opinions about things.”
