Ryan Reynolds regrets "drifting apart" from his father.

Ryan Reynolds has opened up about the death of his father

Ryan Reynolds has opened up about the death of his father

The 47-year-old actor initially thought his dad James - who died in 2014 at the age of 74 - was "losing his mind" in his old age when it turned out to be Parkinson's and more than a decade on from his death has admitted that he just has to "live with" the fact that they didn't spend much time together towards the end.

He told People: "At the time I just thought, 'My dad’s losing his mind.' My father was really slipping down a rabbit hole where he was struggling to differentiate between reality and fiction.

"And subsequently everyone else in his life was losing the bedrock faith and trust that they had on his point of view. There would be conspiratorial webs that he would spin about 'this is happening' and that 'these people might be after me' or 'this person is out to get me.' And just stuff that was such a wild departure from the man that I grew up with and knew.

"I’m constantly putting pieces of the story together. I wasn’t really accepting my own responsibility. It was very easy for me to dine off the idea that my father and I do not see eye to eye on anything and that an actual relationship with him is impossible. And as I’m older now, I look back at it, and I think of it more as that was my unwillingness at the time to meet him where he was. I could have maybe been there with him toward the end, and I wasn’t. He and I just drifted apart, and that’s something I’ll live with forever."

The 'Deadpool and Wolverine' star did, however, send his father a letter in the months before his death and was able to get "closure" that way, even though he "wishes" he was at his dad's side when he passed.

He said: "But there’s nuance, and there were many moments [of connection]. I sent my dad a letter about five months before he died, which I’m very grateful I did. The letter was basically a list of every amazing thing he ever did — every time he showed up or every time he had a catch with me outside after baseball practice.

" Every time he just was there. And if the man couldn’t express his emotions in a way that was dynamic, well, many people can’t. The guy was born in the ’40s. It’s okay. So I’m super grateful that I sent that letter. I know for a fact it meant the world to him. So I did get that closure, but I wasn’t with him when he passed away, and I do wish I was."

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