Highlights

• Lily Collins didn't realize her father, Phil Collins, was famous until she saw a man wearing a t-shirt with his picture on it.
• The divorce between Phil and Lily's mother was traumatic for Lily, causing anger and anxiety.
• Despite some efforts to mend their relationship, Phil and Lily Collins still have a difficult relationship.

Rock musician Phil Collins, of Genesis fame, had his heyday back in the 1980s and early 1990s with hits such as "One More Night," "Sussudio" and "A Groovy Kind of Love." The musician also had a successful solo career, releasing iconic hit after hit, from "In The Air Tonight" to "You'll Be In My Heart."

Collins was married to the socialite Jill Travelman from 1984 to 1996, and together, the two had one daughter, Lily Collins. Young Lily loved her dad, but when her parents divorced (some say due to his cheating) in 1996, she virtually lost her father.

This certainly had some consequences on Lily Collins, as she has had a long stretch of hurt, anger, and frustration because of her father's absence from her life.

Let's have a look at what can only be described as a complicated relationship between Phil and Lily Collins.

Updated in January, 2024: While things are by no means perfect, Lily and Phil Collins have managed to somewhat repair their relationship over the last few years. Lily Collins married director and screenwriter Charlie McDowell in a secret wedding on August 4, 2021, and despite Phil's current mobility issues which have him confined to a wheelchair, he was in attendance for her special day.

Lily Collins Didn't Know That Her Father Was Famous

When she grew up and decided to pursue a career in Hollywood, Lily Collins' "famous" name usually got her an interview or audition. However, getting in the door is one thing — having the talent to do what needs to be done is a whole different ball game.

When she was really young, the actor didn't even realize her dad was a rich and famous rock star. This changed when the two were at Disneyland one day. Phil had Lily on his shoulders, and suddenly, she saw a man wearing a t-shirt with a picture of her dad on it. The man came up and politely asked to take a picture.

"I was being carried on my dad’s shoulders when this man started to walk towards us,” Lily has said. “He had my dad’s face on his T-shirt and I didn’t quite get it. Then he saw my dad and asked for a photo — and it was a really weird moment. I was thinking, 'Why does he want a picture of my dad, and why is my dad on his T-shirt?' Slowly but surely, I started to understand.”

It Was Rocky After Phil Collins Divorced Lily's Mother

Phil was married to well-liked socialite Jill Travelman from 1984 to 1996, although the pair separated in 1994. It was prompted by something involving an old girlfriend of Phil's.

This was a traumatic time for the then 5-year-old Lily. The nasty divorce took two years to finalize. It was also said that Phil had asked Tavelman for a divorce through fax which wasn't true.

Of this, Phil Collins has said, “[The fax story] really hurt my career, or my public persona. And it was based on an untruth."

Truth or not, tensions were running high on both sides. Lily didn't know which way to go, which certainly caused plenty of anxiety for the young girl.

After her parents divorced in 1996, Collins said that she didn’t see her father all that much. She lived with her mother, Jill. And on several occasions, she has spoken of her anger over her father stepping out of her life. At the time, she didn't understand the decision at all. It all came back to haunt her when she was 19, and her dad was divorcing his third wife, Orianne Cevey. The divorce brought all of Lily's childhood memories flooding back.

She has said that at the time, she was in "a perpetual state of fear" and suffered from both anorexia and bulimia.

Her relationship with her father has clearly been unhealthy at times, and Lily decided to try to mend it by writing him a letter.

"My life felt out of control," Lily wrote. "I couldn’t handle the pain and confusion surrounding my dad’s divorce and I was having a hard time balancing being a teenager with pursuing two grown-up careers — which focused heavily on how I looked."

How Are Phil And Lily Collins Doing These Days?

Despite her success in series such as Emily in Paris, Lily and her father still have a difficult relationship. In 2017, she published a collection of essays about her life called Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me, and in them she was brutally honest about her relationship with her father and what the divorce did to her as a child.

Some think she went a little over the top when she included an emotional, open letter to Phil in the book in which she said she forgave him.

According to Hello! Magazine, she wrote:

"I forgive you for not always being there when I needed and for not being the dad I expected,” Collins wrote. “I forgive the mistakes you made. There's still so much time to move forward. And I want to. I'm inviting you to join me. I love you with all of my heart, more than you'll ever know, and am so thankful for you. I'll always be your little girl."

Lily has also been brutally honest about her plights, struggles, and grievances with her father in her published work Unfiltered: No Shame, No Regrets, Just Me. In the project, she has faced the trauma and even gone so far as to publicly forgive Phil for the pain that he put her through as a child/young adult.

Lily has established a successful acting career, including playing Emily in Netflix's Emily in Paris, and the Netflix thriller Windfall, where she stars alongside Jesse Plemmons and Jason Segel. Some may be surprised, as Segel is an actor usually seen in comedies, but has decided to turn the page into a different chapter of his career, taking on more serious roles.