Comedy legend Carol Burnett is seeking custody of her grandson, Dylan, over her daughter Erin Hamilton’s allegedly ongoing battle with substance abuse.
“Due to addiction issues and other circumstances that my daughter, Erin, has been struggling with impacting her immediate family dynamic, my husband [Brian Miller] and I have petitioned the court to be appointed legal guardian of my 14-year-old grandson,” Burnett, 87, told Page Six in a statement on Thursday.
“Guardianship will be for oversight purposes concerning his health, education and welfare and not intended to deny him nor the parents proper visitation with one another,” the statement continues. “We look forward to recovery being the next stepping stone towards normalization and ask for privacy at this time to allow that process to occur.”
The court documents — obtained by The Blast — note that Burnett and Miller are only seeking temporary custody.
“Throughout her adult life, and since Dylan’s birth, Erin has suffered from severe substance abuse and addiction issues,” Burnett claims in the filing, according to the site. “In the past 19 years, Erin has been in and out of rehabilitation centers and has been institutionalized a total of eight times for a minimum of 30 days each time,” it also alleges.
“Dylan’s living environment has long been unstable, unpredictable and unhealthy for a child. This culminated in a Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) investigation and juvenile dependency proceedings in 2018 and 2019,” the court documents also allege, according to The Blast.
The filing reveals a host of alleged details about 52-year-old Erin’s struggle. In July, Hamilton was placed on an involuntary 5150 psychiatric hold following a suicide attempt; Burnett contacted the LAPD for a wellness check. Dylan’s father, Kurt West, recently checked into rehab himself, the filing also claims, and the Department of Children and Family Services investigated the family in 2018 and 2019.
Hamilton, who is Burnett’s youngest daughter, is a singer who has notched multiple hits on the US dance charts, including two number ones in 2008. Dylan, born in 2006, is the younger of her two children; her elder, Zach, was born in 1997.
Burnett’s eldest daughter, Carrie, also dealt with substance abuse prior to getting sober before her 18th birthday. (Burnett’s third daughter is Jody, age 53.) “When we got [Carrie] into a third rehab, oh, she hated my guts,” Burnett told AARP magazine. “You have to love them enough to let them hate you.” Carrie died of complications from cancer in 2002 at 38.
In 2019, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association established a Golden Globe award in Burnett’s name for career achievement in television. Steve Carell presented the inaugural statuette to Burnett.
Hamilton and West could not immediately be reached for comment.