Giancarlo Esposito Has a 'Great Relationship' with His Four Daughters Because He's 'Not Afraid' to Be Honest
The actor is dad to daughters Kale Lyn, Ruby, Syrlucia and Shayne, whom he shares with ex-wife Joy McManigal
Giancarlo Esposito is opening up about being a single dad to his four daughters.
On Tuesday, April 23, the actor, 65, appeared on The Jennifer Hudson Show and spoke with Jennifer Hudson, 42, about his experience of raising his four daughters — Shayne, 27, Kale Lyn, 26, Ruby, and Syr Lucia, 23 — as a single dad. Esposito shares his girls with ex-wife Joy McManigal.
"I would say I’m a single dad but I’m not really, because they have a great Mama Joy," Esposito began. "And she has showed up for them and has really been the one, in so many ways, we’ve raised them together."
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"But I say she’s put in the time because you know what we do. And then when I finally woke up and when I want to have a sincere relationship, which I’ve always had with my daughters, I realized I was still looking at them as if they were 3, 4, 5, years old."
Esposito says that this meant he had to really understand who his daughters were.
"And I started to listen to who they really are and I would always tell them, ask for what you want in life. And then I had to realize that they’re asking me to be present for them."
"So I have a great relationship with my four daughters. I always have but now it’s deepening because I’m not afraid to show them who I really am. And who I have been in my life," he continues.
"Sometimes we shield our children from who we’ve been. And when my daughter said to me, ‘Papa, I didn’t know that about you. I didn’t know that.’ And I went, ‘Oops,' " Esposito jokes.
"But you know, that’s real. We change as human beings from day to day and from year to year and hopefully we grow. And if we have shame surrounding any part of who we have been and don’t want to talk about it, then that’s a little bit of a problem because you still wearing a mask and still hiding.”
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