Kelsey Grammer ended his 12-estrangement from his daughter Greer after running into her while he was out buying a Christmas tree.
Kelsey Grammer ended his 12-year estrangement from his daughter Greer after running into her while he was out buying a Christmas tree.
The 70-year-old Frasier star split from his daughter’s mother, stylist Barrie Buckner, when Greer was four years old and they didn’t see each other again until she was 16 when Grammer turned up at the Christas tree lot where she was working.
The actor – who was with his then-wife Camille and their daughter Mason – approached the teenager and went to introduce himself as her dad. During an appearance on the Pretty Basic Podcast, Greer, 33, explained: “He came up to me and said: ‘Are you Greer?’ And I said: ‘Yes, I am’.
“Then he went, ‘I’m … ‘ And I was like: ‘I know who you are. Duh’.”
The actor – who is dad to eight children from multiple relationships – gave Greer his phone number and the met for lunch a week later. She added: “That’s kind of what started our relationship.
“It took a couple of days to call him, because my mom was like: ‘Give them some time.’ I was ready to call him that day, like: ‘Let’s do this thing. I got a dad now, woohoo!’
“[Mom] was kind of like: ‘Take some time to think about it over the weekend. Let them process it as a family and then call’.”
During the podcast appearance, Greer admitted she had actually seen her dad in a Blockbuster store several years earlier, but she was too scared to approach him.
She explained: “Technically, I saw him once when I was 11, and I ran. It was in a Blockbuster. I ran away.”
Greer also recalled some of her early memories with her famous dad.
She said: “I remember going to Frasier at one point and being three, probably, and wondering why the girls in the back kept redoing the scene, but I didn’t know what that meant. Then I think my mom took me out because I was loud. I think I went backstage …
“I have a memory of going to a party at my dad’s. I have a memory of him going to my preschool play of The Wizard of Oz, which he also remembers because we’ve talked about it … After that, I don’t know.”
After her parents split, Greer remembers seeing her dad featured in a segment on TV show Entertainment Tonight, adding: “My dad wasn’t always on there, but there was something about him buying a Hamptons house and going through the house and there was going to be plenty of room for Mason, my little sister, to run around in.
“I just looked and my mom was like: ‘Are you okay?’ I was like: ‘Yeah.’ It’s not about it’s the life I could be living, but it was like, oh, that wasn’t my life’.”
Kelsey Grammer reunited with estranged daughter after awkward encounter
