Emma Roberts’ five-year-old son, Rhodes, stepped in to walk his mother down the aisle at her recent wedding to Cody John, filling the role left open by the absence of her father, actor Eric Roberts.
Photos from the 25 July ceremony in Sun Valley, Idaho, show Rhodes, whom Roberts shares with ex-partner Garrett Hedlund, dressed in a white tuxedo to match his mother’s custom Monique Lhuillier gown as he escorted her toward John.
Roberts’ aunt, Julia Roberts, attended alongside her husband Danny Moder, but Eric Roberts was noticeably absent.
Asked by Page Six why he skipped the ceremony, Eric offered a brief statement: “I love my daughter, always have, always will. It is perfectly wonderful for her to celebrate however she wants, with whomever she wants.”
The absence continues a strained period in the pair’s relationship that Eric has spoken about publicly in recent years.
In an October 2024 appearance on the Inside of You podcast, he described the “loss of a relationship with my daughter” as the toughest period of his life, while denying there was any lingering “pain” between them, characterising it instead as “a sadness for the most likely misunderstandings we’ll all have forever because we’re human.”
He has also written previously about how his past drug addiction shaped his relationship with Emma, telling readers in his memoir that he never considered himself entitled to physical custody of her: “I never saw myself as someone who deserved to have physical custody of Emma, not in a million years. We both knew better than that.”
Speaking more recently on the podcast Really Famous with Kara Mayer Robinson, Eric added of their dynamic: “It’s only complicated through outside eyes, because they don’t get any of it. So, they have their own take, whatever that is,” while calling himself “so proud” of his daughter.
Roberts and John, who dated for four years before marrying, exchanged vows during a 45-minute outdoor ceremony despite temperatures reaching 95 degrees, with guests including Demi Moore, Kristen Stewart, Sarah Paulson and Billie Lourd among those in attendance.
