Dakota Johnson and her former stepfather Antonio Banderas have always had a pretty close relationship. The Desperado actor not only raised her since she was just 6 years old, he was also her first director for the movie Crazy in Alabama in which she starred alongside Melanie Griffith and her younger half-sister Stella Banderas.
Johnson has admitted that much of what she knows about acting, culture, and life is through her Spanish stepfather. For which, she is extremely grateful. Banderas, too, seems to think of Johnson as his own daughter given the twenty years his marriage to her mother lasted.
However, that beautiful relationship allegedly turned sour real quick when Antonio Banderas left Melanie Griffith for his much younger current girlfriend Nicole Kempel in 2015. In fact, things became so bad, that Dakota Johnson allegedly refused to be in the same room with either Banderas or his girlfriend.
Dakota Johnson blamed Antonio Banderas for her mother’s depression
Through lots of upheavals in life, Melanie Griffith has always remained Dakota Johnson‘s rock. However, the Pacific Heights star has also had to struggle with mental health issues constantly. Allegedly, building a steady life with Antonio Banderas for 20 years after they first met in 1995 for Two Much and promptly got married, helped her a lot to keep herself grounded.
Especially with them raising three children together. However, Griffith’s depression became worse when all of that sort of crumbled in 2015 with Antonio Banderas, too, leaving her for his much younger girlfriend Nicole Kempel. Reportedly, It not only made her insecurities worse but also made her relapse into her old habits of substance abuse.
And Dakota Johnson, who was busy shooting for the second movie in the Fifty Shades franchise, seemed to have taken that badly. She allegedly blamed Banderas for her mother’s worsening condition. As an insider close to the family claimed at the time,
“Dakota cut him off after he walked out on her mom and, despite several attempts from Antonio to mend bridges since then, she’s still refused to be in the same room as him or his new girlfriend.”
They further added, “It’s very sad – he raised this girl and she thinks he’s the most disgusting inconsiderate pig ever, which is incredibly heartbreaking for him.” However, they also admitted that Antonio Banderas was adamant about mending the bridges with his family, and that seems to have worked over time.
Antonio Banderas won Dakota Johnson over in time
Thankfully although things seemed pretty rough and quite unrepairable at the time, Banderas seems to have won not only Dakota Johnson but even Melanie Griffith over slowly after that. As Banderas noted in an interview with People back in 2019, “Melanie is not my wife anymore, but I think she is my best friend. I love her and will love her until the day I die. She’s my family.”
The same year Dakota Johnson also presented her stepfather with the Hollywood Actor Award for his movie Pain and Glory with a heartwarming speech.
This seems to have touched Banderas as he claimed, “She gave it to me and she gave one of the most beautiful speeches that anybody has given me. So I was very thankful to know that she thought that about Papi.”
Also Read: Expendables 3 Star Antonio Banderas in Talks to Play Galactus in MCU’s Fantastic Four Reboot
In fact, Banderas also divulged the cute nickname Johnson has always referred to him by last year in an interview. “She called me ‘Paponio,'” he noted, explaining, “I am ‘Papi’ and ‘Antonio’ altogether, so she always called me ‘Paponio.'”
As a result, it could be said that even though their relationship took a downward turn during those initial years after Banderas and Melanie Griffith’s divorce, things are going pretty well in the family now.
Source: OK! Magazine
