Elle King Doesn’t ‘Want to Be Associated’ With ‘Toxic’ Father Rob Schneider
The singer says her dad forgot her birthdays and sent her to "fat camp" when she was a child.
Elle King performs onstage at Country Thunder Wisconsin on July 21, 2024 in Twin Lakes, Wisconsin.
Elle King and her dad, comedian/actor Rob Schneider, don’t exactly see eye to eye. On the latest episode of Bunnie XO’s Dumb Blonde podcast posted Monday (Aug. 12), the “Ex’s and Oh’s” musician didn’t hold back when discussing her challenging childhood, calling her father “toxic” and emphasizing that she doesn’t align with many of his controversial views.
When the topic of Schneider came up, the podcast host confessed that the Hot Chick star used to be one of her childhood crushes — but by the end of the discussion, Bunnie said that the fantasy was officially dead. That’s because King said that her dad was not often involved in her life, alleging that he forgot her birthdays and sent her to “fat camp” during childhood.
“I go four or five years without talking to my dad,” the singer-songwriter said. “My dad called me and was like, ‘Don’t f–king talk about me in the press.’ I was like, ‘Get f–ked.'”
“If I would ever spend a summer with my dad, it would be on a movie set … I’d just get lost in the shuffle,” she continued. “I was a really, really heavy child, and my dad sent me to fat camp. Then I got in trouble one year because I sprained my ankle and didn’t lose any weight — very toxic and silly. My dad forgot every single birthday,” King added. “I spent my 18th birthday in a summer school and they brought me cupcakes. I came home, and my dad forgot my birthday.”
Billboard has reached out to Schneider’s reps for comment.
Schneider welcomed the four-time Grammy nominee with former model London King in 1989. Elle’s parents split up a year later, and she was raised by her mom. Elle adopted her mother’s maiden name for her stage moniker to distance herself from her father, whose help she told Bunnie she “never wanted” when breaking into the music industry. “He also didn’t have a very good reputation,” she noted. “I don’t want to be associated with him. He’s just not nice.”
“I disagree with a lot of the things he says,” Elle added of Schneider’s controversial conservative commentary. “You’re talking out your a–, and you’re talking s–t about drag and gay rights — get f–ked.”
Listen to Elle’s discussion with Bunnie XO below.
From left: Joey Scolari, Tom Pistore, Keith Pelley, Wayne Zronik and Tim Leiweke speaking on State of the Industry panel at Departure at Toronto's Hotel X on May 8, 2025.Mike Highfield