The grandson of novelist JRR Tolkien has disclosed how the "Lord of the Rings" films tore his family apart and provoked a feud with his father.
Simon Tolkien admitted for the first time how the immense popularity of Peter Jackson"s Hollywood adaptations damaged his family in what was akin to being "hit by a juggernaut".
The former barrister, now himself a successful novelist, said he began to lose "sight" of his identity and became "suffocated" by being known as "JRR Tolkien"s grandson".
The problems also provoked an "incredibly, dreadfully painful" feud with his father, Christopher, with the falling out becoming so bad that the pair didn"t speak for "a while". His son was also the victim of bullying at school.
He wrote in a Sunday newspaper: "Maybe some people assumed it was about money ... I don"t know. "In hindsight, I think all of my anger was being driven by this feeling that I was trapped. All I was ever going to be was the grandson of a very famous writer. That was the sum total of my achievements."
He said he managed to turn his life around thanks, in part, to his 50-year-old American-born wife, Tracy, with whom he now lives in California.
While his grandfather died in 1973, aged 81, his 87-year-old father is still alive and the pair have since "sorted out all our differences".
