BY: LBS STAFF
Published 1 hour ago
“My dad left when I was four, and then I didn’t meet him again until I was 16,” the actress recalled the unexpected run-in with her father and his then-wife, Camille, at a Christmas tree lot, before opening up about their relationship.
Greer Grammer is recalling her estrangement from her father, Kelsey Grammer, and how they reconnected.
During a recent appearance on the Pretty Basic Podcast, the 33-year-old actress got candid about her relationship with her father, recalling how she “didn’t know” her dad until she was a teenager after the two ran into each other when she was 16.
In the conversation, Greer said the “biggest misconception” about her is that people believe she grew up with a famous father.
“The biggest misconception — and I never know how to talk about it except to just trauma dump — but the biggest misconception about me is that I didn’t know my dad until I was 16,” she explained. “I’m technically a nepo baby. People have misconceptions about me when they hear my last name, because they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s Kelsey Grammer’s daughter. Clearly, she grew up in this way.’ That makes so much sense, I’d think that too.”
“My dad left when I was four, and then I didn’t meet him again until I was 16,” added Greer, whose mom, Barrie Buckner, split from Kelsey, 70, when she was four. “Technically, I saw him once when I was 11, and I ran. It was in a Blockbuster. I ran away.”
“When I was 16, I ran into him at a Christmas tree lot,” she continued. “He came up to me and said, ‘Are you Greer?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ Then he went, ‘I’m –.” And I was like, ‘I know who you are. Duh.’ He gave me his phone number, and we went to lunch the next week, and that’s kind of what started our relationship.”
The Awkward alum went on to share more details from the day she spoke to her father for the first time in 12 years. At the time, Greer said she had been volunteering at the Christmas tree lot in Malibu since she was Miss Teen Malibu. According to Greer, it was “very well known in the community” that her dad bought his Christmas tree from that specific lot every year, and said she and her pageant director discussed that the Frasier star may show up.
“It was so interesting that we had talked about it. And I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s probably not,'” she told podcast host Alisha Marie, who is her roommate. “And then towards the end of my day, I was getting ready to kind of leave, [and] I looked to see someone come in, and it was him, Camille, his wife at the time, and my little sister Mason, who was like 6, 7, something like that. And they walked in, and you could collectively feel like — maybe it was just me — but I felt like I felt everybody’s breath just [get sucked in].”
Greer said that after everyone saw her father and his then-wife, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum Camille Grammer, and their daughter, Mason, now 24, the man who ran the Kiwanis Club, which organized the fundraiser, told her she could leave for the day if she wanted.
“It’s a very famous name, but if you live there, it’s, like, a very small town, close in a community. So everybody knows everybody,” Greer said of Malibu. “And so everyone knows all the drama. So yeah, everyone was just like, ‘Oh my God.’ And this guy … He ran the Kiwanis Club, [and] he came over, and he was like, ‘Hey, if you want to leave, if you want to go take lunch, if you want to go for a moment, you can come back, or if you want to leave, you can leave. We won’t cut your hours. I will fully sign and say that you were here. If you don’t want to be here, you can go.'”
The Deadly Illusions star recalled her reaction at the time, sharing why she decided to stay.
“If anyone’s going to feel uncomfortable in this situation or feel like they need to leave, it’s not going to be me because I didn’t do anything wrong,” Greer said. “I was a kid. If anyone’s going to feel shame in this situation or guilt or weird, it’s not going to be me.”
She said her pageant director asked her if she wanted to go say hi to her father. “And I was like, ‘No, I’m fine. He’s Christmas tree shopping with his family. I’m not going to go ruin that for them, that little girl doesn’t deserve it,'” Greer recalled of her response. “You know, that’s just not my place, even though would look back, and I’m like, ‘Well, it kind of was.'”
According to Greer, her father approached her shortly after,
“I heard someone behind me go, ‘Excuse me.’ And I turned around and he was there. And sweet thing, he did seem so nervous,” she shared, before again recalling Kelsey’s words.
“He was like, ‘Um, I’m so sorry to ask. Are you Greer?” And I was like, ‘Yeah,'” she continued. “And then that’s when he was like, ‘I’m –‘, and I was like, ‘No, I know who you are.’ And then I think I hugged him. And then, he asked questions. He was like, ‘How are you? How was school?'”
She said she “felt nervous,” and she “probably dissociated a little bit,” but the encounter “felt good.” Greer added that she and her father exchanged contact info, and they got lunch the following week.
“It took a couple of days to call him, because my mom was like, ‘Give them some time,'” she recalled. “I was ready to call him that day, like, ‘Let’s do this thing. I got a dad now, woohoo!’ She was kind of like, ‘Take some time to think about it over the weekend. Let them process it as a family and then call.'”
Earlier in the conversation, Greer shared how she visited the set of Frasier as a little girl, and a memory of Kelsey coming to watch her preschool play The Wizard of Oz. However, she said she doesn’t really remember much of at time before her dad left either than those “very specific” memories.
“Of course, my therapist was like, ‘Do you remember when you knew that your dad wasn’t a part of your life anymore? Did your mom ever sit you down?'” she explained. “I was like, ‘I don’t think so.’ She was like, ‘You should ask her about that.’ I was like, ‘No. I don’t want to. I think my brain’s probably blocking it out for a reason. But, thank you for bringing it up.'”
These days, Greer said she has a good relationship with her father, along with her half-sister, Mason, and half-brother Jude, 21.
Kelsey Grammer is a father of eight, including Greer.
His oldest daughter, actress Spencer Grammer, 42, is from his marriage to his first wife, Doreen Alderman. As previously mentioned, he also shares two children — Mason and Jude — from his marriage to Camille Meyer. Kelsey married his fourth wife, Kayte Walsh, 46, in 2011. The couple shares four children: daughter Faith, 12, and sons Gabriel, 10, James, 8, and Christopher, who was born last month.
While speaking with People in May, Kelsey opened up about being a father of seven, and discussed the balancing act that comes with spending time with his younger kids and “playing catch up” with his older ones.
“I have neglected a couple of the kids in my life, especially the first two,” he admitted. “I’m trying to make up for a little of it now. I’m still their dad, so you can always have [a] chance to show up.”
“I probably should have been a little more clear and maybe less tolerant with the older ones,” he added. “I’m pretty tolerant with the young ones, but I’m clear about how there’s certain expectations and certain ways to navigate through a social situation: keep it close to the vest and play it straight, and you’re going to be well-served in your life. I’m a little more specific with them about doing their studies and being prepared. [I tell them], ‘What’s your job in life? Showing up.'”
via: TooFab
