Barry Keoghan responds to ‘disgusting’ claims that he’s a ‘deadbeat dad’ to toddler son
“Saltburn” actor Barry Keoghan wants his fans to know he is not an “absent father,” despite what some online trolls might claim.
The 32-year-old, who shares a 2-year-old son, Brando, with ex-girlfriend Alyson Kierans, has received a lot of criticism online since he doesn’t post pictures of his son often.
But according to Keoghan, that criticism doesn’t carry any weight in his household.
“People draw a narrative and go, ‘Absent father, (expletive), deadbeat dad,’ and more disgusting things I wouldn’t even repeat,” he said in the Nov. 5 episode of “The Louis Theroux Podcast.”
“Just the audacity of some people, man, it sickens me. It makes me furious,” he continued.
Keoghan went on to explain that the online trolls are part of the reason he doesn’t post photos of his son online.
“The more attention I’ve gotten 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,” he said on the podcast.
The attention has come in bunches for Keoghan, who went public with his relationship with singer Sabrina Carpenter earlier this year after his split from Kierans the year prior.
But while he likes to stay off social media as much as possible, his curiosity gets the better of him from time to time, the actor admitted during the conversation, and that’s when he comes across the online slander.
Aside from the parenting comments, he also noted he receives criticism for his appearance and looks.
The actor says he has “tough skin and strength” to handle the attention, but it doesn’t mean he isn’t affected by the “untrue” comments and criticism.
“Of course, it’s going to affect me being a father when I had no blueprint to take from,” he said, referring to his own upbringing. “People just read that [as] laziness and go, ‘Oh, that’s no excuse to be an absent father.’”
Keoghan previously opened up about his childhood in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, which was published Sept. 12.
In that interview, he admitted that not having a father growing up resulted in him and his son not having “the normal father-son relationship.”
“I don’t have that figure to draw experience from and to base it on,” he said at the time, adding that it doesn’t stop him from loving his son, but it does get in the way of teaching his son certain things.
He also opened up about his childhood in a 2018 interview on Ireland’s “The Late Late Show,” where he revealed he and his brother lived in 13 foster homes while his mother struggled with addiction.
“Every family was good to us,” he shared. “As a kid, you don’t know what’s happening. You get attached and then, boom, let’s move over here… I don’t have a hometown, that’s what I’m saying.”
His mother died when he was 12 years old, according to E! News, but Keoghan says he has “great memories of her” and is “very proud of her.”
But one thing Keoghan doesn’t want is for his upbringing to be seen as a “pity story.”
Instead, he wants people to be inspired by it.
And as for his life at home, Keoghan says his main focus is “just trying to make a living, trying to get a good body of work and create safety for my child.”
To him, the parenting comments are nothing more than a distraction from what’s really going on.
“People kind of have a judgment on me as a parent,” said Keoghan. “I’m like, well until you’ve walked a day in my shoes growing up as a kid, then you can comment.”
