Danny Dyer discusses reconciling with his father: ‘It’s been a process, but he is my best mate now’
“Everything that has happened between us is water off a duck’s back”
Danny Dyer has spoken to Rolling Stone UK about reconciling his relationship with his father, who he now says is his “best mate”.
Dyer on the cover of Rolling Stone UK for our April/May issue, out now, to discuss his various film and TV projects as well as life at large.
In the cover feature, Dyer discusses mending his relationship with his father, who left the family when Dyer was young, and the secret family that his father raised.
Now, his father is getting remarried, and enjoys a close relationship with Dyer. The actor said: “He’s getting married in the Isle of Dogs. He’s got the church sorted and there’s a little boozer round the corner. He wants it low key, but I’m gonna take him up Savile Row and get him a suit. He won’t have it, but I want to do that for him.
He added: “Getting married at 70 is fucking mental, but I find it quite cute and touching that he’s fucked his other relationships up and is now ready to settle down. It’s been a process, but he is my best mate now. I trust him, I confide in him and he talks a lot of sense. Everything that has happened between us is water off a duck’s back.”
Dyer also discussed how being abandoned by his father aged nine contributed to his drug and alcohol problems, with the connections becoming clear during his time in rehab in South Africa.
“I learnt that I had a lot of abandonment issues, daddy issues and why that was making me press the fucking button,” Dyer said, adding of rehab: “You sit in a circle, and you talk about the shit that’s happened throughout your life.”
He added: “It was difficult, but really, I just wanted to learn what was happening because when my dad left it was quite heavy for me and I didn’t know how to sit with it. Later in life, I just felt that any male role model was going to abandon me and so then I fucked up the relationship before they could.”
Elsewhere in the cover feature, Dyer discussed his despair at the state of UK politics in 2026, saying he hopes for a “big reset”.
Read Danny Dyer’s Rolling Stone UK cover feature in full here and order your print copy of the magazine here.