Deadbeat Dad Hubbel
Worst father ever. Has affair while wife is pregnant. Leaves family once she is born. Never asks to see her again.
shareYes, that pretty much sums it up.
shareI would guess that Hubbell agreed to pay child support for his daughter...and would no longer have to pay it once Katie remarried (to "the only David X Cohen in the book" -- which means she married Jewish this time) and Cohen took over family expenses.
That he didn't see -- evidently could not BRING himself to see -- his daughter is a mark of a mature movie about a very flawed man.
But I've known such in real life. I've known men who allowed the new husbands of their ex-wives to adopt their blood children. And I"ve known of adult children who have totally shut out the birth father in favor of the stepfather.
It happens.
In the early 20th century, some people believed that after a divorce, the man should step away and let the woman get on with raising any kids and finding a new man. Because after all, the woman did all the child-rearing.
I've never been able to find out exactly where this belief came from, but I suspect it came from assholes who didn't want any contact with their ex, even if it meant the children totally lost a parent.
I've never been able to find out exactly where this belief came from, but I suspect it came from assholes who didn't want any contact with their ex, even if it meant the children totally lost a parent.
--
It can be a sad truth...what's really sad is when the decision is made that the child never really HAD that parent in the first place. Its usually the father and he is...erased. I've known these men, it is not made up.
Of course, many dads abandon their kids after the divorce, never WANT to see them. I recall some modern actress saying of her birth father..."all he was , was a sperm donor."
And some dads (and moms) come to love their new kids with their new spouses better than the kids they had in failed marriages.
Life can be painful. Even The Way We Were saw that. I think that's why people rather adopted it in its time -- the reveal that Hubbell never even saw his daughter hit hard and was remembered.