Carol Burnett seeking legal guardianship of teenage grandson
Carol Burnett says her daughter is dealing with substance-abuse issues and is incapable of raising Burnett's grandson. Credit: Getty Images / Frazer Harrison
Comedy legend Carol Burnett and her husband, Brian Miller, are seeking guardianship of their teenage grandson, saying the boy's mother has addiction issues and cannot care for him.
In a court document obtained by TheBlast.com, Burnett, 87, is requesting to be named guardian of Dylan Hamilton-West, the younger son of her daughter, Erin Hamilton, 52. "Throughout her adult life, and since Dylan's birth, Erin has suffered from severe substance abuse and addiction issues," the Tony- and six-time Emmy Award winner states in her filing. "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."
The document further states that in July, Erin Hamilton briefly was placed under involuntary psychiatric care "for suicidality and drug use." The teen's father, Kurt West, is unable to care for Dylan due to his own substance-abuse problems, the filing stated, adding: "Dylan's living environment has long been unstable, unpredictable and unhealthy for a child." The California Department of Children and Family Services conducted an "investigation and juvenile dependency proceedings in 2018 and 2019," the document said.
"Due to addiction issues and other circumstances that my daughter, Erin, has been struggling with, impacting her immediate family dynamic, my husband and I have petitioned the court to be appointed legal guardian of my 14-year-old grandson," Burnett said in a statement to Newsday. The filing gives Dylan's age as 13; according to "Entertainment Tonight," he will turn 14 next month. Erin Hamilton has another son, Zachary, who is in his 20s, with her writer-producer ex-husband, Trae Carlson.
"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," continued the statement. "We look forward to recovery being the next steppingstone toward normalization and ask for privacy at this time to allow that process to occur."
A hearing on the petition is scheduled for Jan. 8.
Burnett and her second husband, producer Joe Hamilton, who divorced in 1984, are also parents to daughter Jody. Their eldest daughter, actress Carrie Hamilton, died of cancer-related pneumonia in 2002, at age 38. Burnett and Miller have been married since 2001.
