Greer Grammer, the daughter of acclaimed actor Kelsey Grammer, has publicly described the devastating moment her father suggested she should never have carried his surname.
The Heartbreaking Revelation on a Podcast
Speaking candidly on the Pretty Basic podcast, the 33-year-old actress recounted the painful conversation that occurred when she was 19, shortly after reconnecting with her father following a 12-year estrangement. Greer explained that her father told her he had advised her mother, Barrie Buckner, at her birth that it "might be better for you not to have my last name" to make her life easier.
"I think I was like 19 when he told me that, and I started sobbing," Greer revealed. "Because to me that was like the meanest thing you could ever say to somebody. Like, 'I knew I wasn't gonna be in your life, so I told my mom it would probably be easier for you to not have my last name.'"
A History of Neglect and Estrangement
The Frasier star, now 70, left Greer and her mother in the mid-1990s when Greer was just four years old. The actor had no contact with his daughter for the next 15 years, a period he has since admitted constitutes neglect.
In a May interview with People magazine, Kelsey Grammer confessed: "I have neglected a couple of the kids in my life, especially the first two. I'm trying to make up for a little of it now." The actor is a father to eight children from different relationships.
Kelsey Grammer's Personal Trauma and Addiction
The actor's personal struggles have been well-documented and are deeply rooted in family tragedy. In 1975, his 18-year-old sister, Karen, was kidnapped, brutally raped, and murdered by Freddie Lee Glenn and accomplices. Grammer has spoken openly about how this horrific event led him to turn to alcohol and cocaine to numb his pain.
He told Oprah Winfrey: “I liked the way it made me feel. Maybe it was because I was running away from the feelings that weren't, you know, as comfortable as I wanted them to be.” He eventually achieved sobriety in 1996.
Despite their fractured past, Greer has forged a successful acting career of her own, with roles in series like Awkward. Her emotional disclosure sheds new light on the lasting impact of parental absence and the complex legacy of a celebrated Hollywood figure.
