David Spade stopped talking to his father after welcoming a child of his own.
David Spade
The 54-year-old actor has nine-year-old daughter Harper from his relationship with Jillian Grace, and has said becoming a father himself made him realise some of the problems he had been having with his own dad, and so he made the decision to cut him out of his life.
Speaking in his audiobook, 'A Polaroid Guy in a Snapchat World', David said: "This one's going to be a little tricky - this is a chapter about my dad, and the way that it fits into this audiobook is I'm a dad now. And the difference - and why it caused some complications with my own dad - is because he was sort of a ne'er-do-well, which is putting it mildly. I think f**k up is more on the nose."
The 'Grown Ups' star was just four years old when his father suddenly vanished from the family home in Michigan, and now he has a daughter of his own, David can't imagine doing that to his brood.
He added: "We'd be sitting at the doors with our bags because he would call us and say he wanted to see us. What I didn't realise back then was that it was a control thing. We never had his phone number. He would call us when he felt like it.
"I have a daughter now, and she came out of a situation with a girl I was dating and it was not planned. And I get angry, because my brothers and I were planned. Now, I'm so happy that I have a daughter and she's the best thing in my life, but I couldn't picture my daughter being sick and calling me and me not answering.
"Or just calling her without any way for her to call me. That would be too much, it would be too rough. So when I had her, I got this new tidal wave of resentment towards my dad because of his irresponsible behaviour and manipulative mean streak. So I stopped talking to him."
The 'Joe Dirt' actor says the decision to remove his father from his life might be "crazy" to some people, but thinks it's what he deserves.
He said: "I know it sounds crazy, but I just thought, 'Holy s**t. You really played your cards the way you did when we were kids.' I mean, I like to have fun too, but it can't be 24/7 and literally nothing else. The only thing my dad really did was give me an excuse to be nuts. I can always cry and go, 'It's my dad's fault. He left me when I was 4! Now I'm crazy.' "
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