Difficult
Country star Elle King talks about her strained relationship with her father, comedian Rob Schneider
In several new interviews, country star Elle King, 35, opens up about her strained relationship with her famous father, former “Saturday Night Live” star Rob Schneider. The four-time Grammy nominee, who appeared on the Season 17 finale of “American Idol” with winner Laine Hardy, spoke brutally honestly about “toxic” memories from her childhood, including her father sending her to “fat camp” and forgotten birthdays, as well as their differing views as adults.
“He’s just not nice,” she told Bunnie Xo in a preview video on TikTok with combined clips from the new episode of her podcast “Dumb Blonde,” which will be released on August 12, 2024.
Elle King says she doesn’t want to be “associated” with her father Rob Schneider
GettyElle King and Rob Schneider speak onstage for New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash on December 31, 2023
King and Schneider, who were part of the “SNL” cast from 1990 to 1994, made a rare joint appearance onstage to ring in 2024 when they co-hosted “New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville” on CBS. But normally, the singer told Bunnie Xo in her podcast’s preview video, it’s not unusual for her to “not speak to her dad for four or five years.”
Memories of her childhood with Schneider are anything but warm and fuzzy. According to People, King grew up in Ohio with her mother, former model London King, but occasionally spent time with Schneider in LA, she told Bunnie Xo, who is married to fellow country star and “Idol Season 22” mentor Jelly Roll.
“If I ever spent a summer with my dad, it would be on a movie set,” King said. “I would just get lost in the hustle and bustle. If I ever messed up a take, if I ever talked, I would (expletive) get in trouble.”
King called her father’s parenting methods “very damaging and very silly” and also recalled, “I was a really, really heavy kid. My dad sent me to fat camp and then I got in trouble for a year because I sprained my ankle and still didn’t lose weight.”
“I really want to admit it now,” she continued, “but my dad forgot every single birthday. I spent my 18th birthday at summer school… and they brought me cupcakes and when I came home, my dad had forgotten my birthday.”
According to USA Today, King appeared in one of her father’s films, “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,” in 1999, but said in a separate interview that Schneider never helped her get into the entertainment business.
On August 6, she told Kaitlyn Bristowe on her podcast “Off the Vine”: “My mom was the one who carried my guitar and smuggled me into bars, let me go out with my friends and took the guitar home for me. My mom always told me to take lessons and she drove me everywhere. And she took care of me and always made sure I had some kind of creative outlet.”
King acknowledged that the time she spent watching her father and other entertainers probably rubbed off on her, telling Bristowe, “Sure, I grew up watching my dad. My dad absolutely owned a theater or a small comedy club. And I grew up around really funny, talented, creative people. Of course, that’s going to leave an impression on me.”
But when she released her first album, King Bunnie Xo said, “My dad called me and said, ‘Don’t say (swear word) about me in the press!'”
In 2023, King told People, “My father and I have a beautiful and really wonderful, great love relationship with great boundaries. I love my father so much.”
But since then, their relationship has deteriorated significantly. She told Bunnie Xo: “He never helped me, I never wanted his help. And he didn’t have a very good reputation. I don’t want to be associated with him. He’s just not nice.”
Elle King wants to tell her fans that she and her father have different worldviews
King wanted to make one thing clear in her conversation with Bunnie Xo: she and her father have very different political views.
According to Newsweek, Schneider supports independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He also made headlines in early August when he tweeted that he was boycotting the 2024 Olympics because of the opening ceremony, which he said was a parody of the “Last Supper” by featuring drag queens at a large table.
“I’m sorry to have to wish ALL THE BEST ATHLETES in the world the best of luck, but I can’t watch an Olympic Games where Christianity is disrespected and Satan is openly celebrated,” Schneider wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
In a separate tweet, Schneider attached a photo of the performance and wrote: “Guys hanging out their genitals in front of kids?! Drag queens?! I wasn’t sure if I was watching the @Olympics or a school board meeting…”
The opening ceremony artistic director, Thomas Jollyhas since denied that the scene was inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting of Jesus Christ and his apostles at the Last Supper, according to the Associated Press.
King distanced herself from her father’s views during her conversation with Bunnie Xo, saying, “I don’t agree with a lot of the things he says. You talk (expletive) and you talk (expletive) about drag and, you know, gay rights, and it’s like… war (expletive). I want to take this opportunity to say that I don’t agree. I don’t agree with what he’s saying.”
When asked how she deals with her differences, King said, “You can want someone to change as much as you want. You can’t control other people’s actions or other people’s feelings. You can only control how you react and what you do with your feelings.”
At the time of writing, Schneider had not yet commented on his daughter’s statements about him.
