Rob Schneider Responds to Elle King’s “Toxic” Father Accusations
In case you didn't know by now, Elle King is Rob Schneider's daughter.
The thrice-married comedian shares Elle—born Tanner Elle Schneider on July 3, 1989—with his first wife, London King. They married in 1988 and split up in 1990, the same year Rob joined Saturday Night Live as a writer and performer.
"I was born out of a Vegas marriage," Elle told Billboard in 2015 after she broke through with her Grammy-nominated hit "Ex's and Oh's," off of her debut album Love Stuff. "My parents got married three days after they met."
Once she turned 18, she added, "I took on my mom’s last name because she raised me, and I wanted to be my own person."
So Elle was never shy about the fact that she considers her mother—who's been married to Elle's stepdad, musician Justin Tesa, since 2000—to be her guiding parental light in this world.
But she's talked about spending summers with her dad growing up and they've even shared the stage here and there: In 2019, father and daughter sang a duet during Rob's set at the Netflix Is a Joke Festival and he joined her for a cover of The Beatles' "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" during a March 2023 show in Seattle. They also rang in this year together performing at New Year's Eve Live: Nashville's Big Bash at Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park.
But Elle recently painted a particularly unflattering portrait of Rob on the Dumb Blonde podcast. She said that he sent her to "fat camp" and that, while he brought her to movie sets (she made her acting debut as "Cookie Girl" in 1999's Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo), she'd get in "f--king trouble" if she ever got in the way of him working.
And at this point in time, she said, "I don't want to be associated with him."
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Responding to his eldest child putting him on blast, Rob quipped on the Aug. 14 episode The Tucker Carlson Show podcast, "It's fun being a parent, isn't it?"
But, he said, "I want to just tell my daughter: Elle, I love you, and I wish I was the father of my 20s that that you needed. I clearly wasn’t, and I hope you can forgive me for my shortcomings.”
The 60-year-old—who also shares daughters Miranda, 12, and Madeleine, 7, with third wife Patricia Azarcoya Arce—said he felt "terrible" that she felt that way.
And, he noted, "I just want you to know that I don't take anything you say personally."
Rob told Tucker, who asked if it was difficult to refrain from getting combative, "If you love somebody completely, you just—I love her. And all I want for her is to be happy and to heal from this. I apologize completely for and accept responsibility for not being the parent that I am now with my new kids. She didn’t get that, and I missed a lot."
Meanwhile, Elle has had a history of telling it as she's felt it, so if you missed what she's said about her famous father, you can catch up right here: