Richard Dreyfuss' Son Ben Details Years-Long Estrangement

Richard Dreyfuss’ son, Ben Dreyfuss, is opening up about his alleged estrangement from his famous father.

“My dad has no money,” Ben, 39, claimed in a since-deleted post shared via X on Thursday, November 13, per USA Today. “If he did, we wouldn’t get it since we’ve been estranged ever since some completed family drama to do with MeToo.”

Ben claims that in 2017, at the height of the viral #MeToo movement, he was managing his Oscar-winning father’s then-Twitter account. At the time, Ben wrote a post on behalf of his dad and in support of his younger brother, Harry, who had accused Kevin Spacey of groping him when he was 18. (Spacey denied the allegations at the time via his lawyer.)

The posts “prompted someone to MeToo my dad,” Ben wrote in the since-deleted posts, adding that Richard subsequently blamed his children for the incident.

“This led to years of acrimony,” Ben wrote via X, USA Today reports.

Richard shares all three of his adult children — Ben, Emily Robin and Harry — with his ex-wife, writer and producer Jeramie Rain. The pair married in the early 1980s and divorced in 1995. Richard moved on with Janelle Lacey, tying the knot in 1999. They divorced in 2005.

On Monday, November 17, Ben published what he claims are emails he sent his father since the alleged incident via his Substack, Calm Down — attempts, he says, to reconnect with Richard, 78.

“I’ve sent plenty since, but he hasn’t replied,” Ben wrote, detailing one alleged January 2024 email as “long and pathetic.”

“He comes off worse than I do,” Ben adds, “but I’m not exactly covered in glory either.”

In the alleged January email, Ben seemingly attempts to explain what he claims occurred during a 2022 family dinner, in which he voiced his frustrations and complicated feelings with others accusing him of benefiting from nepotism. (Richard was one of Hollywood’s most prolific leading men in the 1970s, and has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for his various roles.)