Eric Roberts Reveals Abuse and Recovery in Deeply Personal New Memoir: 'I'd Like to Make Good'

Mar. 15, 2025

Eric Roberts in 2023.Photo:Gisela Schober/Getty

Gisela Schober/Getty

Eric Robertsis laying it all on the table.

In his new memoir,Runaway Train: Or the Story of My Life So Far, Eric Roberts, 68, tells the story of his troubled upbringing in Georgia, the many ups and downs of his long acting career and offers a public apology to his sisterJulia Roberts, 56, with whom he’s long had a complicated relationship.

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After his parents divorced in 1971, his mother married Michael Motes. Julia, who was 10 years younger than Eric, and their sister Lisa, now 59, lived with them in Smyrna, Ga., along with their younger sister, Nancy Motes (the daughter of Betty and Michael). Eric stayed with Walter, who eventually died of cancer in 1977.

His over five-decade career, which includes some 700 credits, was full of many highs and spectacular lows. He turned down the role of Jesus in Martin Scorsese’sThe Last Temptation of Christ, forever losing his chance with the acclaimed director. In 1981, he was in a serious car accident that put him in a three-day coma, and which he says, along with years of drug abuse, affected his memory and recall.

By the time his sister Julia moved to New York in 1985 and began to embark on her own acting career, he was addicted to cocaine. At the time, he was the more famous actor, and later claimed more than once of his superstar sister, “If it wasn’t for me, there would be no Julia Roberts.”

Over four decades later, his new book backpedals that assertion. He writes, “I hope Julia will accept this public apology. It was an asinine thing to have said.”

Roberts admits his drug use sabotaged his relationships with his sisters. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they suffered from PTSD from when it was dangerous to be around me,” he writes. “Lisa and Julia needed love and protection — instead they got fear and uncertainty.”

According to Eric, who’s been married to Eliza Garret since 1992, things fell apart with his sister Julia when she supported Cunningham in the custody battle, at a time when his cocaine addiction was out of control. He does not go into detail in his memoir but admits it was the right decision.

“I imagine I will remain as Julia’s brother and Emma Roberts’ dad for the rest of my life,” he writes. “I’d like to make good on that, to move aside proudly and with grace. That’s part of the reason for writing the book.”

He feels he’s come to terms with his father, too. “I knew that I loved him. I couldn’t live down the shame of loving him or of who he was, someone capable of terrible things," he writes. “I was ashamed of being so muchofhim and so much like him.”

As he concludes, “If you’ve ever loved a parent … with a cruel nature, it’s never too late to begin to recover from the shame and pain of it all.”

Runaway Trainis on sale now, wherever books are sold.

source: people.com