Eric Roberts Issues An Apology To Sister Julia Roberts For Taking Credit For Her Success

Actor Eric Roberts has apologized to his famous sister, Julia Roberts, for comments in which he claimed he was the reason for her success. 

In his new memoir Runaway Train: Or, The Story of My Life So Far, Roberts admits that past remarks he made about Julia were foolish. 

“Now one of the things I’d like to apologize for in this book is for publicly saying on more than one occasion, ‘If it wasn’t for me, there would be no Julia Roberts,'” Eric writes. “That’s not only unfortunate, but it’s also untrue.”

Roberts went on to note that his sister is a very “driven woman” and that someone would’ve “plucked her out of the crowd” without any of his help. 

While Roberts displayed regret in his memoir for taking credit for Julia’s success, he explained that his success as an actor may have inspired his sister to explore the entertainment industry. 

“I was born to do this. I moved to New York City when I wasn’t even old enough to drink a beer in public. If Julie had stayed in Atlanta, she’d probably have married a wealthy dude and lived a very different life. So I will take credit, once I had broken away from my father (or thought I had) and moved to New York City, for telling my sisters, ‘Come on up, girls; the water’s fine,'” Eric writes in his memoir. 

Roberts’ past comments about claiming his sister’s fame came in a 2018 Vanity Fair interview, in which he said, “If it wasn’t for me, there would be no Julia Roberts and no Emma Roberts as celebrities, as actresses, and I’m very proud of that.”

During the same interview, Roberts considered why his relationship with Julia was often strained. 

“I was exhausting to be around,” he said about his drug addiction. “Complainy, blamey, unable to enjoy enjoyment. Everyone in my world needed a break sometimes, and that must have included Julia.” 

In 2017, Roberts spoke to uInterview exclusively about his efforts to prevent animal cruelty. “You can be kind to animals and work with animals,” Roberts said of the closure of theRingling Bros. Circus. “There’s a way to do it. There’s a way to do anything with kindness.”

Roberts’ memoir Runaway Train: Or, The Story of My Life So Far is now available.