Elle King, 35, revealed details about her tumultuous relationship with her father, comedian Rob Schneider, 60, during a conversation with Bunnie XO on The Dumb Blonde Podcast.
Elle King Opens Up About Troubled Relationship With Dad Rob Schneider
On Saturday afternoon (Aug. 10), Bunnie XO shared a sneak peek on social media of the upcoming episode of her popular Dumb Blonde Podcast, featuring Elle King, where the “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home)” singer “doesn’t hold back” while talking about her and her father‘s troubled relationship.
“She addresses everything,” Bunnie XO caption on the clip on TikTok. Throughout the teaser video, Elle King was very honest about her upbringing, the experiences she had with her dad and how they would sometimes go “four or five years without talking.”
King strives to achieve success on her own, separate from her famous relatives, and has proven successful in doing so. “I never wanted his help. He also didn’t have a very good reputation. I don’t want to be associated with him,” she unveiled. “He’s just not nice.”
However, often times when the country singer/songwriter sits down for interviews, media outlets sometimes ask about her famous father, which can be challenging to navigate while in the spotlight.
“I put out my record and people finally started asking about my dad,” she explained, referencing her third studio album, Come Get Your Wife, a project that features the singles “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home)” featuring Miranda Lambert and “Worth A Shot” featuring Dierks Bentley.
After chatting with the media about her dad, Rob Schneider, King revealed that he reached out to her and said, “don’t f**king talk about me in the press.”
King Admitted She Would Often Get Lost In The Shuffle During Her Childhood
During The Dumb Blonde Podcast interview, the four-time Grammy-nominated artist also confessed she would often get “lost in the shuffle” throughout her childhood while on movie sets with Schneider, which was the only real time she got to spend with her father. “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 or if I ever was an arm in the camera or if I ever was talking, I would get in f**king trouble,” King revealed.
Elle King even shared that Schneider has forgotten “about every single birthday” of hers. “I’m really putting sh*t out there right now, but my dad forgot about every single birthday. I spent my 18th birthday in a summer school, and they brought me cupcakes and I came home. My dad forgot my birthday. Come on. It’s my one f**king day,” she later added.
She And Her Famous Father Often Has Strong Disagreements
The mother of one also made known that her dad once sent to a “fat camp” when she was younger, as she was admittedly a “really, really heavy child.” She disclosed, “I got in trouble one year because I sprained my ankle and I didn’t lose any weight. Very toxic and very silly.”
She also opened up about the friction between her and her father during the candid, tell-all conversation. She recounted a particularly heated time in her life, saying, “I had already started getting tattooed, and it was like 108 degrees, so I was having to wear sweaters because my dad was very anti-tattoos or any form of self-expression that differed from what he wanted.” King expressed her strong disagreements with her father’s views, adding, “I disagree with a lot of the things that he says. You’re talking out your ass, and you’re talking sh*t about drag and anti-gay rights, and it’s like, get f**ked. [And] I want to use this opportunity to say I disagree. I do not agree with what he says.”
Elle King Has Made Many Attempts To Repair Their Tough Relationship
In a second clip, shared exclusively with Music Mayhem, King further explained that she has made many attempts to through the years to repair her and her father’s relationship, but it just never worked.
“I think dads, who make the choice to connect with their kids, do. I disagree with a lot of the things that he says. You can want someone to change so much, [but] you can’t control anyone else’s actions,” King continued. “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**king boil up, and I boil over, and I f**king bust my lid. You try every different angle. I would try letters, I would try soft, I would try yelling… He’s just like, ‘well see, look, you’re yelling, you’re yelling.’”
King continued, “everyone else is [always] the problem.”
She Wasn’t Able To Connect With Her Dad Until She Was “Much, Much Older”
The clips conclude with King admitting that it wasn’t until she was “much, much older” that she was finally able to connect with her dad on some level.
This isn’t the first time Elle King chatted about her and her father’s relationship. In fact, she recently spoke to Kaitlyn Bristowe on her Off The Vine Podcast about having to dodge being labeled a “nepo baby,” revealing that her dad wasn’t really part of her life when she first signed a record deal, which she worked “really hard” to achieve.
“We really weren’t even speaking…,” she stated. “I was a lot closer with my mom’s family in Ohio, and so I just have always gone by my mom’s last name.”
The Dumb Blonde Podcast episode featuring Elle King drops on Monday, August 12 on all streaming platforms. The episode is also available to view exclusively for Bunnie XO’s Patreon community on Sunday, August 11.
