Tim Allen is pulling back the curtain on fatherhood, sobriety and the regrets that still haunt him.
The 72-year-old actor, best known for Home Improvement, Last Man Standing and the Toy Story franchise, admitted in a new interview that becoming a dad was never something he had dreamed about.
“I never really wanted to be a dad,” Allen told Us Weekly.
The comedian said he has even joked about it on stage, explaining that he was “never been a real fan of children” and found parenting to be one of life’s biggest surprises.
“As people have said many times about parenting, you go through all this stuff to get a driver’s license or a passport, but there’s nothing about raising children,” he said. “It was a work in progress.”
Allen is the father of two daughters. He shares his older daughter, Katherine, with his first wife, Laura Deibel. He shares his younger daughter, Elizabeth, with his current wife, actress Jane Hajduk.
The Toy Story star admitted he was not always around as much as he should have been when Katherine was growing up.
“With Kate, I was gone a lot, so her mom did most of the raising,” Allen said.
The actor also said raising daughters was a different world for him after growing up in a large family with seven boys and two girls.
“I have a different view of what will make a strong woman,” he said.
Allen explained that he was never very interested in what he called “girl stuff,” such as clothing, looks and gossip. Instead, he focused on teaching his daughters practical lessons about money, independence and taking care of themselves.
Over the years, Allen said he has come to understand the deep bond between a father and daughter.
“We communicate on a different level,” he said.
He added that he is sometimes stunned when his older daughter remembers advice he gave her years ago.
“I didn’t realize how much I got through to my older one,” Allen said. “Now and then she’ll say, ‘You used to say this all the time,’ and I go, ‘You actually listened.’”
Allen also opened up about one of the most painful parts of his past: the fact that he was not sober during part of Katherine’s childhood.
“I made amends to her,” he said.
The actor has been sober for nearly 30 years and said his younger daughter has only known him as the man he is today.
“With the younger one, I see how much different it is when I’ve been sober almost 30 years,” Allen said. “She never knew any of that guy.”
Allen said he has talked openly with Katherine about the past, and he believes she does not hold it against him.
“I’ve thought about it many times, and I’ve talked to Kate, and she doesn’t hold it against me,” he said.
As Toy Story 5 gets ready for release on June 19, Allen is also looking back on the darker chapter that changed the course of his life.
The actor said he “lost focus” after college and got involved in criminal activity, a period that led to him spending more than two years in prison.
“When I was incarcerated, I started reading books about men and women who had been successful out of nowhere, and I started focusing on where I wanted to be,” Allen said.
He said the experience left him ashamed and determined never to go back down that road again.
“I did not want to do that ever again,” Allen said. “I humiliated my family and friends and myself. I did not want to make that mistake again.”
Now, decades later, Allen says sobriety, fatherhood and hard-earned reflection have shaped him into a very different man.
