Lisa Frank’s estranged son Hunter slams childhood: ‘Not magical’
Lisa Frank’s son Hunter Green says growing up around the iconic artist “was not a colorful, magical time.”
In interviews for Amazon MGM Studios’ new docuseries “Glitter and Greed: The Lisa Frank Story,” Green revealed that he’s been estranged from his famous mom for years.
The 29-year-old, who is the oldest of Frank’s two sons, shared intimate details about what it was like for him growing up in the Frank household. According to Green, the relationship between dad James Green and mom Lisa was fraught — and one he knew was bound for divorce.
“The divorce happened when I was 10 years old. I remember, I knew my dad wasn’t coming home that night. I just knew something was wrong,” Green recalled.
“I give him a call, even though I knew the answer, I asked him, ‘Hey dad, are you coming home tonight?’ I remember him saying, ‘I’m not coming home tonight buddy.’”
Green also remembered asking his dad, “Can’t you wait 8 years until I’m 18 years old?”
He added, “It is a long time but as a 10-year-old kid you don’t know any better. There was resentment there, yeah.”
Raised in Tucson, Ariz., Green explained that his family’s public image was very different than the reality he lived. “Everybody knows my family is running a big business and has money,” he said. “So everybody’s under the impression that your life is perfect. It’s the high life. And it was so not like that.”
Even as a kid, Green said he knew that “something was wrong with our family.”
“I have no recollection of us sitting down at dinner without an argument. I have no recollection of a birthday that went well. They just didn’t see eye to eye. It was just a broken family, arguing yelling back and forth,” Green revealed.
“It was me and my dad and my mom and [younger brother] Forrest. There was never a time that we were one big happy family, ever. I knew that the family would split from an early age.”
Hunter went on to say that he and Forrest have very different relationships with their mother.
“My mom treated Forrest a little differently than me, a little bit softer. She treated him more like her child than me,” he claimed.
According to Green, Frank built a “facade” to make her seem to be “the coolest mom ever,” but was a far cry from that image in private.
“She would yell at me, she would scream at me,” Green said. “[My parents] would call me a problem child and maybe I’d get in trouble, but that’s because I was so flustered from what was going on at home and everything. I wasn’t a problem child. I wasn’t a bad kid. I was in a bad environment.”
At one point, Green claims Frank told him to “Go live with your dad.”
“I felt like she wasn’t giving me encouragement or telling me that she wanted me around,” Green shared. “She had struggles of her own that maybe she took out on me. She lost her parents at a early age, maybe that has some traumatic experiences in her head. But growing up in her household was not a colorful, magical time.”
Frank has released a statement responding to the documentary, which appears in each episode.
“I have loved art and have been an artist ever since childhood. Lisa Frank, Inc. is the result of that passion,” the statement reads. “I’m incredibly grateful for the amazing artists and team members who helped bring my vision to life. I’m so excited about the future, as the next generation takes the helm. Stay tuned — the best has yet to come!”
“Glitter and Greed: The Lisa Frank Story” is available to stream now on Prime Video.
