Adam Nimoy’s relationship with his father, Leonard Nimoy, was healed by heartbreak.
Adam, 67, writes in his upcoming memoir, “The Most Human: Reconciling with My Father, Leonard Nimoy,” that for decades he either barely spoke to his father or was completely estranged.
But when Adam’s second wife was diagnosed with cancer, the “Star Trek” actor took over.
“He was the point man, which was absolutely unthinkable a few years before. I would never have called him. Never. I didn’t call him when I broke up my 18-year marriage and moved out of my house, leaving my two children,” Adam exclusively told Page Six.
“(But) my father became the father I always needed but never really had. So it was a very transformative experience.
The author says their relationship began to improve a few years earlier when the actor, who died in 2015 at the age of 83, sent his son a letter listing all of Adam’s deficiencies.
Even though they were both sober at the time, Adam says his father wasn’t taking responsibility.
“He was sober but not necessarily in recovery,” Adam explains. “He didn’t do his own inventory. He took my inventory and that’s a bit of a no-no.
Adam admits his first impulse was to lash out at his father, but a friend showed him another way.
His friend advised him to take stock of his own and make amends with his father while letting go of the resentment he had towards him.
“He immediately invited me to a Shabbat dinner the following Friday at his house,” Adam recalls.
Their strained relationship began in Adam’s childhood, amid his father’s immense fame for his role as Spock.
“It’s hard to fight a guy who has millions of fans all over the world who think he’s amazing,” Adam says. “And then I come in and I say, ‘I have news for you.’ You are human, just like the rest of us. And you make mistakes.
He describes their repaired relationship as “a relief” and “a lovely thing,” which was cemented by their work on the 2016 documentary “For the Love of Spock” about Leonard’s life.
“It was a way for me to honor my father,” Adam says. “And it was a way for him to really look at where he came from and what he had done in his life.”
“The Most Human: Reconciling with My Father, Leonard Nimoy” comes out June 4.
Adam will be at Barnes & Noble on the Upper West Side on June 6th and at Bookends in New Jersey on June 7th.
New York Post
