is opening up about the complicated relationship he has with his birth father, who allegedly kidnapped the Riverdale star when he was a child.
“My brother and I were kidnapped when we were 6,” Ulrich, 54, said on the Tuesday, April 23, episode of the “Inside of You With Michael Rosenbaum” podcast. “It was our birth father but we didn’t know him and he was never around and he gave us to this woman he was married to and then gave us to her parents and then we moved around so much. …My care was not the utmost concern.”
Visibly shocked to hear his guest’s story, asked if Ulrich’s birth father ever got in trouble with the law.
“No, but I think there had to be stuff filed and charges and all this stuff,” the actor explained. “[My mom] didn’t and I don’t blame her necessarily and you know I’m sure there’s a lot more to it that I don’t even know or understand or that can be reclaimed in a way. For whatever reason, [the answer is] no and that’s alright.”
Before becoming a successful actor and earning roles in the Scream franchise or on Riverdale, Ulrich remembers spending quality time with his older brother in cities they weren’t familiar with.
Without much direction, the siblings “just sort of made our way everywhere we went.”
“We were initially in Miami and we would like to do all kinds of s–t through the streets of Miami,” Ulrich explained. “We were 6 and 7 years old, nothing crazy. Just wandering around the streets coming home to an empty house every day.”
Although he was reunited with his birth mom at the age of 10, Ulrich said he still found himself interacting with his father on more than one occasion. While attending NYU in the early ‘90s, the Miracles actor searched for his dad’s phone number and called him.
“He came up to New York for about an hour,” Ulrich recalled. “He didn’t really talk about the past. He just wanted to talk about him.”
After moving to Virginia to raise his twins Jakob and Naiia Rose with ex-wife , Ulrich also experienced another unexpected reunion with his dad after police provided directions to his neighborhood home.
“He showed up on my farm when I was like 32 for about an hour,” he recalled. “I was pissed after that one.”
After working through his emotions in therapy, Ulrich tries not to hold onto anger about his father. Instead, he remains focused on being the best dad to his own children, who turned 23 last month.
“I don’t feel much about him to be honest,” Ulrich shared about his current mindset. “My kids and I are so tight.”
