Bob Odenkirk Admits It's Been Hard to 'Get a Grip' on Being an Empty Nester as He Says His 2 Kids 'Don't Need Me' (Exclusive)
- - Bob Odenkirk Admits It's Been Hard to 'Get a Grip' on Being an Empty Nester as He Says His 2 Kids 'Don't Need Me' (Exclusive)
Hannah SacksAugust 16, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Nina Westervelt/Variety/Getty
Erin Odenkirk, Bob Odenkirk, Naomi Odenkirk and Nate Odenkirk at the premiere of 'No Hard Feelings' on June 20, 2023 in New York City.
Bob Odenkirk is candidly sharing how he's been adjusting to being an empty nester.
The Breaking Bad star, 62, spoke with PEOPLE for the My Life in Pictures video series and talked about being a dad to his two kids — daughter Erin, 24, and son Nathan, 26, who he shares with longtime wife Naomi. As he reflected on how his two kids are now grown, Odenkirk admitted that it's been tough for him to grapple with no longer having them at home.
“I’m 62. Yes, I can entertain myself with trying to write a good movie, trying to act well in a project. But there’s nothing that meant anything like being a dad to me," Odenkirk candidly shared.
"And it’s a little bit hard to get a grip of what I’m doing with myself now that that project…it’s not completely over, but the bulk of it is over," he continued. "My kids are 24 and 26, they’re very much living their own lives. And yeah, they don’t need me."
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Elsewhere in the video, Odenkirk held up a photo of himself and a much-younger version of his son. The actor shared that although they were pictured on set together, his son Nathan didn't really like to visit him.
“That’s Nate, when he was little. And I took him to the set. Mostly, he did not like going to sets," Odenkirk told PEOPLE. "My kids, especially Nathan, was very intimated by the energy on a set. Especially when you’re the lead actor or the director, which I was on most of my sets."
"He just didn’t like that his dad was needed by all these other strangers," said the star. "It made him feel uncomfortable. But he seemed to enjoy that day. We had a monster truck, and he loved seeing that.”
Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic
Bob Odenkirk, Naomi Yomtov, and children attend the premiere of 'Better Call Saul' on January 29, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.
He also received a photo of his daughter Erin when she was a baby. The two were seen sitting in a bed together and reading a book.
“Here’s a picture of me with my daughter Erin, and she’s having a bottle. Being interrupted in the middle of the book. And it’s funny because I have done a book with my daughter," said Odenkirk. "It’s called Zilot and Other Important Rhymes."
"It is a book of rhymes that I wrote with my two kids when they were little, and we rewrote them when they grew up. And she did the illustrations," he continued. "But we would read 8 or 10 books a night. We read a lot to our kids. And that’s one of the reasons I started to write with them."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
