Todd Williamson/Getty Images For Relativity MediaPhil Collins has been married three times and has children with each of his wives. Now, actress Lily Collins, who Phil shares with his second wife Jill, has written an open letter to the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer expressing her anger at, disappointment over and, ultimately, acceptance of, Phil’s absence during much of her life.
Lily was born in 1989. When she was five, Phil and her mom split, and he moved to Switzerland to be with his new girlfriend, who later became his third wife. People reports that in her new book of essays, Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me, Lily has written a “Letter to all Dads,” in which she addresses her feelings of abandonment.
“I was angry. I missed him and wanted him there,” she writes. “I’ve realized that many of my deepest insecurities stem from these issues with my dad. It’s taken me over a decade to resolve some of them (others I’m still resolving) and to finally build up the courage to speak my mind to him.”
She continues, “We all make choices and, although I don’t excuse some of yours, at the end of the day we can’t rewrite the past… I now understand that my frustrations surrounding our communication are not about changing you, but accepting you as you are.”
She concludes, “I forgive you for not always being there when I needed and for not being the dad I expected. I forgive the mistakes you made. There’s still so much time to move forward. And I want to. I’m inviting you to join me. I’ll always be your little girl.”
Phil’s first wife, Andrea Bertorelli, announced in December that she plans to sue him for things he wrote about her in his recent memoir, Not Dead Yet.
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