Robin Williams spent his final birthday 'sharing gifts and laughter' with his children: 'One thing that was ours'

'I will be forever grateful that my brothers and I got to spend that time alone with him,' his daughter wrote.

PUBLISHED DEC 9, 2024

Cover Image Source: Actor Robin Williams (R) and daughter Zelda pose at the premiere of Columbia Picture's "RV" at the Village Theater on April 23, 2006, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Despite being best known for his incredible acting talent, the legendary comedian and actor Robin Williams was also a great father to his three children, Zelda, Zak, and Cody. Williams, who was 63 years old, died by suicide in 2014. Each of his children offered heartfelt remembrances of their father after his passing, describing what it was like to grow up with him.

His daughter Zelda recalled a memory about the actor's last birthday that the children got to spend with their father. “My family has always been private about our time spent together. It was our way of keeping one thing that was ours, with a man we shared with an entire world. But now that’s gone, and I feel stripped bare. My last day with him was his birthday, and I will be forever grateful that my brothers and I got to spend that time alone with him, sharing gifts and laughter,” she wrote, per Vanity Fair.

The emotional tribute to her father added that “even in his darkest moments,” he was always warm. “While I’ll never, ever understand how he could be loved so deeply and not find it in his heart to stay, there’s minor comfort in knowing our grief and loss, in some small way, is shared with millions,” she added.

Image Source: Getty Images | Kevin Winter — Actress Zelda Williams (L) and her father actor Robin Williams arrive at the premiere of Magnolia Pictures' "World's Greatest Dad" at The Landmark Theater on August 13, 2009, in Los Angeles, California. (Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Kevin Winter)

In an interview in 2009, ahead of Williams' World's Greatest Dad release, he spoke to TODAY and expressed what fatherhood means to him. “I’m so proud of them in different ways, but have they always been cherubs? No, but that’s been part of the process,” Williams said in the interview. “And am I the ‘world’s greatest dad?’ Not at all, I’m a work-in-progress, but I love them,” he said.

Actor Robin Williams appears onstage during MTV's Total Request Live at the MTV Times Square Studios on April 27, 2006 in New York City. It was announced on August 9, 2006, that Williams is seeking treatment for alcoholism after being sober for 20 years. (Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Peter Kramer)

It was actually after Zak's birth that Williams decided to quit drinking. The loss of John Belushi and the birth of the couple's son, Zak, by Williams' then-wife Valerie made the comic give up alcohol and cocaine abruptly, per The Hollywood Reporter. “The Belushi tragedy was frightening,” Williams shared. “His death scared a whole group of show-business people. It caused a big exodus from drugs. And for me, there was the baby coming. I knew I couldn’t be a father and live that sort of life,” he added.

Following Robin's passing, Zak shared that he used booze and marijuana as self-medication, per Hollywood Life. “These bandaids left me numb, disconnected and addicted. I was nowhere near happy and definitely not feeling like the best version of myself,” he wrote, noting that even after bettering himself the company helped him recover. “So, I stopped self-medicating and got sober. But I still didn’t feel like my best self.”

Cody Williams, the youngest sibling, was also pretty devastated by the death of his father. He wrote, "There are no words strong enough to describe the love and respect I have for my father. The world will never be the same without him. I will miss him and take him with me everywhere I go for the rest of my life and will look forward, forever, to the moment when I get to see him again." Cody paid tribute to his father by getting married on the same day the actor would have turned 68.