Ewan McGregor has publicly addressed his long-rumoured feud with his eldest daughter Clara, describing how she eventually “let him have it” while the pair were shooting a film together.
A rift occurred between the Trainspotting star, 55, and actress Clara, 30, following Ewan’s divorce from his estranged wife, Clara’s mother Eve Mavrakis.
In the wake of the divorce, Clara hit out at Ewan’s new girlfriend, Scott Pilgrim vs the World star Mary Elizabeth Winstead, 41, and branded her “a piece of trash”.
Reconciliation and public comments
Clara, who has spoken publicly in the past about her personal struggles with addiction, has since reconciled with her father, with Ewan growing while discussing their fall out at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on Sunday 16 August.
The Star Wars actor explained that the divorce had been “very difficult”, with Clara “expressing her anger very well”.
“It was a very painful time. My children were very hurt, Clara was very hurt and Clara was – I’m very grateful for it now – but she was very open with me, very vocal with me, and expressed her anger very well,” he said.
Background of the divorce
Scottish actor Ewan married production designer Mavrakis, with whom he is parent to four children, in 1996. The couple separated behind the scenes in May 2017, with Ewan swiftly dating his Fargo co-star Winstead, one year before he would file for divorce from Mavrakis.
His daughter’s disparaging comments about Winstead were made on Instagram, when pictures of Ewan and his new girlfriend were first published in 2018.
Speaking months later, Clara explained: “We had already started dealing with it and trying to cope. It was incredibly surprising to me that they had gone out in public.”
Clarifying that she still “loved” Ewan, she continued: “I love him and I always will. The relationship’s not going to end because of this. We are incredibly close and despite me strongly disagreeing with how he’s gone about things, I’ll always love him.”
Family reconciliation and film collaboration
Ewan and Winstead welcomed their first child, a son who is now five, in 2021, and married the following year.
The family appeared to have reconciled years later, however, as the pair co-starred in Clara’s 2024 film Bleeding Love, which he discussed at the Edinburgh International Film Festival this weekend.
Admitting that he was initially “really scared” to read the script for fear it’d be biographical, Ewan said that the script had elements inspired by their relationship, but that the events of the film “hadn’t fully happened between us”.
He then described filming one “incredible, brilliant moment” where Clara’s character “fully lets her dad have it, really tells him what she thinks of him and she was able to do so in reality”.
“It was a very important part of that for me and her by being on set together and telling a story about an estranged daughter,” he said.
