Phil Collins addresses feud with daughter Lily Collins after family rushed to his deathbed
Phil Collins addresses feud with daughter Lily Collins after family rushed to his deathbed
Bethany Whittingham & Eleanor Tolbert Sat, October 3, 2026 at 12:17 PM UTC
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Phil Collins has addressed his family feud with his famous daughter following his end-of-life scare -Credit:YouTube
Phil Collins has responded to his Hollywood daughter Lily's heartfelt yet scathing letter, in which she criticized him for failing to be the father she "expected" — after she rushed to his bedside in 2024.
The Emily in Paris star, 37, took aim at her father, 75, in her 2017 memoir, penning an open letter confronting his absence throughout her life. In Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me, Lily told her dad: "I forgive you for not always being there when I needed and for not being the dad I expected."
The father-daughter pair appear to have rebuilt their bond since then, with Lily and her film director husband Charlie McDowell, 43, welcoming their daughter Tove via surrogacy last year. It comes as 80's heartthrob John Cusack horrified fans with a 'new, stretched face' that left them raging 'Why did you do that?'
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Now, in a candid new interview, Phil opened up about the family rift, acknowledging that he treated Lily's mother, Jill Taverman, "badly," while insisting he always strived to do right by his children. Making an appearance on Piers Morgan's Uncensored, he directly addressed Lily's letter, reports the Express.
He confessed: "She wishes she hadn't written it because she thought it was hurtful. I'm not saying it isn't hurtful. I know what I did or what I shouldn't have done. I treated her mum badly. I tried to always be there for her."
"Whenever, from the age of five or six, whenever I left the house to go off, I've always tried to be there for her."
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Last year, the drummer and his family chose to reunite, spending four days together at the Knightsbridge hotel. Until that point, the actress worried her daughter would never know her father, whom she has affectionately dubbed "Grandpa P."
Though the family typically gathered for Christmas and birthdays, Phil chose to spend Christmas with all of his children, uncertain how many holiday seasons remained.
The actress slammed her rocker dad for not being the father she "expected" in her open letter -Credit:Instagram
Looking back on the poignant celebration, he recalled: "It was moving, that was obvious. Lily, for example, just burst into tears because she now has a child, and she said, 'I never thought that my child would get to know her grandfather'... It was very touching, very moving."
In April 2024, Phil's children were summoned to his hospital bed to say their final farewells following a severe health crisis. He previously told the Sunday Times: "There were some decisions to be made about 'Do we keep Phil on life support?' kind of thing.
"My kidneys were packing up, my organs were just seizing up. People were coming to say goodbye. But I don't remember them coming, I didn't have no idea this was going on.
"They were all worried that they wouldn't see me again. It could all have gone so terribly wrong."
Throughout the years, Phil has candidly discussed his battle with alcoholism, revealing in his 2016 memoir, Not Dead Yet, that he became an alcoholic at the age of 55.
He wrote: "I got through the heady Sixties, the trippy Seventies, the imperial Eighties, the busy Nineties. I was retired, content - then I fell. Because suddenly, I had too much time on my hands."
The star now relies on a live-in nurse following spine and knee operations, and is only able to move around using crutches. He also battles type two diabetes.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
