Elle King has opened up about her tense relationship with her father, comedian Rob Schneider.
Speaking on the Dumb Blonde podcast hosted by BunnieXO, the 35-year-old revealed she hasn’t spoken to her dad in “four or five years.”
“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, I would get in f**** trouble,” Elle recalled.
The Ex’s & Oh’s singer appeared in her dad’s 1999 film Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.
She also shared that her father “forgot about every single birthday.”
Elle King is opening up about her strained relationship with her father, comedian Rob Schneider
Image credits: elleking
“I spent my 18th birthday in a summer school, and they brought me cupcakes, and I came home, and my dad forgot my birthday.”
Part of the reason why she doesn’t get along with Rob is his alleged opinions on social issues, which differ significantly from hers.
“I disagree with a lot of the things that he says. You’re talking out of your a**, and you’re talking s*** about drag and, you know, anti-gay rights, and it’s like get f****. He’s just talking out of his a**, and I want to use this opportunity to say that I disagree. I do not agree with what he says.”
Speaking on the Dumb Blonde podcast, the 35-year-old described her father as “very toxic”
At another point in the podcast, the Grammy-nominated artist recalled a time when her father sent her to a “fat camp” and reprimanded her for not losing weight upon her return.
“I was, like, a really, really heavy child. My dad sent me to fat camp. Then, I got in trouble for one year because I sprained my ankle, and I didn’t lose any weight. Very toxic and very silly,” she said.
Last year, Elle told People Magazine that she was mainly raised by her mother, former model London King, and stepfather, Justin Tesa, in Ohio.
She went on to share many painful experiences from her childhood with him, such as being sent to “fat camp” and his forgetting her birthday on many occasions
When she released her self-titled EP in 2012, “he wasn’t even in my life. He got married and had a kid, and we weren’t even talking.”
In addition to Elle, the 60-year-old actor shares daughters Miranda, 11, and Madeline, 7, with his third wife Patricia Azarcoya Arce.
The singer said she tried “every different angle” to repair their relationship.
“I would try letters, I would try soft, I would try yelling. He’s just like, ‘Well, see, you’re yelling.'”
She continued: “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**** boil up, and I boil over, and I f**** bust my lid.”
Elle, who shares two-year-old son Lucky with tattoo artist Dan Tooker, recently faced criticism for delivering a drunken performance during a Dolly Parton tribute concert at the emblematic Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee.
In January 2024, she was one of the artists invited to celebrate the country star’s 78th birthday. According to a TikTok from an attendee, Elle’s performance included “about 15” expletives. She also forgot the lyrics to Dolly’s Marry Me and admitted to being “hammered.”
After the show, the Grand Ole Opry apologized on social media, writing, “We deeply regret and apologize for the language that was used during last night’s second Opry performance.”
Meanwhile, Dolly asked everyone to “forget it and move on” because Elle “felt worse than anyone ever could.”
The singer said she tried “every different angle” to repair their relationship: “I would try letters, I would try soft, I would try yelling. He’s just like, ‘Well, see, you’re yelling.'”
Elle claims that her father threatened her, telling her she shouldn’t talk about him to the press
@xomgitsbunnie OUT TOMORROW on patre0n & Monday everywhere else 🎙️👱♀️ my sister @Elle King doesnt hold back! She addresses everything #elleking ♬ original sound – Bunnie Xo 🪄
The singer revealed that she went to a “therapeutic program” after the controversial performance and that “nobody really knows what [she] was going through behind closed doors.”
“Ultimately, I couldn’t go on living my life or even staying in the situation that I had been going through. I couldn’t continue to exist in that high level of pain.”
In 2018, she shared that she battled substance abuse, depression, and PTSD in the fallout of her breakup with Andrew Ferguson.
Andrew was arrested and charged with felony domestic violence after allegedly grabbing Elle by the throat and threatening to kill her.
“There’s two ways out. You can take the bad way out, or you can get help. I got help because I knew that I have felt good in my life, and I knew I could get there again,” the musician said at the time.
People reacted to Elle’s comments about growing up with Rob Schneider
