How Sam Neill reconnected with son 25 years after placing him for adoption
Sam Neill detailed his “unusual” family and how he reconnected with his son Andrew 25 years after placing him up for adoption.
Over a decade before Neill’s death, he told the Sunday Times in a rare comment about his family that they’re “more extended than most.”
The “Jurassic Park” actor explained Andrew was adopted when his eldest child “was very small.”
“I was quite small, too – in my early twenties,” the actor noted during the 2014 interview. “I didn’t see him for 25 years and then we went looking for each other.”
Neill said while most reunions “are portrayed as sentimental and grisly,” there was “nothing sentimental” about his and Andrew’s reconciliation.
“No one sobs in anyone’s arms; it’s much more grown-up,” he shared.
Elsewhere in the interview, Neill said the advice he’d give to his 20-year-old self is that “you’re more capable than you think.”
Neill — who died Monday at age 78 — had three other children in addition to Andrew.
He welcomed his second son, Tim, in 1983 with actress Lisa Harrow. They met on the set of the 1981 film “Omen III: The Final Conflict.”
Neill had a daughter, Elena, with his ex-wife, Japanese make-up artist Noriko Watanabe, whom he was married to from 1989 to 2017.
The “Peaky Blinders” star also adopted Watanabe’s daughter, Maiko, from a previous relationship.
Neill was mostly private about his family life, though he did announce the birth of his grandson Nahlo on Instagram in 2021.
“The Love. I don’t put family on media stuff. Except when they’re brand new. This is my brand new grandson Nahlo, the bestest boy, 2 weeks old,” Neill wrote alongside a photo of him holding the newborn.
“So chilled, no fuss. Just eats, sleeps and thinks about things,” Neill continued. “Parents blissed out, and everybody happy. Me particularly. The love.”
In March 2023, Neill told The Guardian that watching his “lovely little grandchildren” grow up was one of the reasons he’d be “annoyed” if he died.
But Neill also said at the time he was “not afraid to die.”
Neill’s family announced his “sudden and unexpected” death two months after the actor confirmed he was cancer-free following a battle with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma.
“It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia,” the family said in a statement.
Neill “passed with the dignity that has characterized his whole life,” his loved ones noted.
They also promised that “more details will be shared later.”
