Dad threw me out... he didn’t know who I was Family anguish of Doctor Who star Eccleston
ACTOR Christopher Eccleston has revealed how his father threw him out of the family home as dementia took a cruel hold.
The heartbreaking scene came one Christmas Day as the former Doctor Who star visited his parents.
He said dad Ronnie acted out of fear – not realising who his son was.
In a poignant interview, father-of-two Christopher, 53, said: “My father was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2000. Once diagnosed we realised he had been exhibiting symptoms since 1997.
“So he lived with dementia for 15 years. My mum cared for him for 14 of those years, so I have first- hand experience of family members suffering the disease. Suffering is not a word that all people with dementia like – they prefer to say they are living with it.
“My father threw me out of his home on Christmas Day, which upset my mother, Elsie, deeply. He didn’t know who I was. He felt I was on his territory. I made him paranoid. I made him afraid, so he basically got me out of the house, what MEL B is set for a scary reunion, coming face-to-face with her former nanny in court.
The ex-Spice Girl and Lorraine Gilles, pictured on a break in Ibiza and at a cosy family meal, have not spoken for months.
It follows divorce paper claims that Mel’s husband, Stephen Belafonte, got Lorraine pregnant, paid for an abortion and engaged in threesomes.
Now they have been invited to do a deal in Los Angeles on a libel case filed by the German nanny to stop it going to trial.
A legal source said: “Both Mel and Lorraine are invited to attend. If they do not reach agreement, it could mean many of Mel’s star friends being called to be on quizzed on video by lawyers, before potentially being called to the stand.”
America’s Got Talent judge Mel, 41, and Lorraine, 26, are caught up in three legal cases.
Lorraine’s legal team want a five-year restraining order dismissed. In Mel’s divorce case, Lorraine is understood to be siding with Stephen, 42.
She also says mum-of-three Mel’s accusations about their relationship are false and wants “undisclosed damages”.
Lorraine claims Scary Spice Mel instigated a seven-year sexual relationship when she was 18 and “naive and curious”.
The pair are set to meet on August 9.
mean is, I understood I needed to leave, so he could be more comfortable.”
Ronnie, 83, died in 2012 after spending the final year of his life in a home.
In an earlier interview, Christopher said his father’s condition became evident when he developed obsessions with things like cutting the grass.
He said: “He would tell me every five minutes to cut it and I would snap at him.
“I eventually learned that, instead of trying to pull people with dementia into your world, you have to enter theirs.
“Once, a crossword clue was “dictator, six letters”. He answered “despot”. As I wrote it in he was staring fiercely and asked, ‘Are you related to me?’ I said, ‘I am your son’. In his confusion he had no memory of his children.”