Liv Tyler Reflects on the Pain Her Paternity Revelation Still Brings Todd Rundgren: “He Took Care of Me as a Dad”

Liv Tyler is opening up about one of the most emotionally complex chapters of her life — discovering that Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler was her biological father, and how that revelation still affects the man who raised her, musician Todd Rundgren.

In a candid conversation on the Sibling Revelry podcast with Kate and Oliver Hudson, Liv shared that she was around 11 or 12 when a paternity test confirmed what her mother, Bebe Buell, had revealed years earlier — that Steven Tyler was her father. But long before that, it was Rundgren who had stepped in to raise her.

“He took care of me as if he was Dad,” Liv said, explaining that Rundgren was constantly touring but remained a loving and stable figure in her life. “He had another partner and two boys. So I would go and visit them and go on trips with them.” She added that she doesn’t speak to Rundgren as much as she’d like, acknowledging, “I think it’s probably still very hard and painful” for him to think about how she learned the truth.

Liv first sensed something was different when she attended one of Steven Tyler’s concerts as a child. The connection she felt was immediate, and afterward, her mother told her the truth. She vividly remembers sitting in a chair by the window for hours, processing the news. “It was layers. The first wave was shock,” she recalled. “Then I came to the conclusion: wow, I have two dads and all this love.”

That realization brought both wonder and complexity. As she got older, she realized the emotional weight of the experience hadn’t vanished — it had just been buried. “When you get older, your life starts to formulate and then you’re like, ‘Wait, I need to deal with this shit,’” she said, explaining that therapy later became necessary to unpack those early experiences.

Despite the emotional complications, Liv has spoken consistently about her love and gratitude for both men. She once called Todd her “spiritual father” and has credited him for providing consistency during her childhood. When she gave birth to her son Sailor in 2017, it was Steven who was by her side in the hospital. “They’re both unconventional,” she said. “They’re like unicorns or wizards. The way they think is just different.”

Even before she knew Steven was her father, Liv had felt drawn to him. She kept a poster of him on her bedroom wall and even wrote in her diary that she thought he might be her dad. “Strangely enough, when I first met my dad… I didn’t know he was my dad and I fell in love with him,” she once said. “I would talk to him on the wall.”

Now, decades later, Liv is still navigating the complicated love she has for both of the men who shaped her. And while she says there’s still pain and distance with Rundgren, she doesn’t take his role in her life for granted. “I’m so grateful to Todd for choosing to be a father figure to me,” she said. “It’s a big thing for a man to say, ‘I know this kid might not be mine, but I still want to be her father.’”