Saltburn star Barry Keoghan has said that claims on social media that he is an "absent father" makes him furious and "sickens" him. Speaking on The Louis Theroux podcast, the actor - who is set to star in Peaky Blinders - opened up about claims that he doesn't see his young son, Brando.
Speaking about his childhood, where he grew up in foster care following the death of his mother who died after a drug addiction struggle, he said: "If I didn’t have tough skin or the strength to have, I wouldn’t be sitting here. Of course, (my childhood is) going to affect me being a father when I had no blueprint to take from.
"People just read that (as) laziness and go, ‘Oh, that’s no excuse to be an absent father’. I’m not an absent father. But it’s just, again, people love to use my son as ammunition or whatever. And it kind of leads me to stop, the more attention I’ve got lately and the more in the public I’ve become, the less I’ve posted about my child, because I don’t think it’s fair to put my child online."
Barry shares two-year-old Brando with his ex-partner, orthodontic therapist Alyson Kierans. The pair split mid-2023.
© NetflixHe continued: "People draw a narrative and go ‘absent father, [expletive], deadbeat dad’, and more disgusting things I wouldn’t even repeat. Just the audacity of some people, man. It sickens me, makes me furious."
© InstagramHe added that although he tries to stay away from social media, he gets curious and wants to know what people are saying about him - particularly if it's slander.
The 32-year-old previously opened up about fatherhood to Entertainment Weekly, saying: "I didn't have a father figure growing up, so even my relationship with my son isn't quite of the normal father-son relationship because I don't have that figure to draw experience from and to base it on. Love, you don't need anything to draw from, love is pure, and so I'm not on about that, but I'm on about little stuff like teaching your son this or teaching your daughter that."
© Getty ImagesBarry, who is currently dating pop star Sabrina Carpenter, couldn't have a busier filming schedule at the moment, as he is set to star in the upcoming Peaky Blinders movie as well as promoting his new movie, Bird. He is also filming movies Crime 101 and The Immortal Man, and recently completed the upcoming musical thriller, Hurry Up Tomorrow.
The Louis Theroux Podcast is available on Spotify now.
