Barry Keoghan is hitting back at ‘deadbeat dad’ rumors amid romance with Sabrina Carpenter

Barry Keoghan is pushing back against recent claims labeling him as a ‘deadbeat’ father amid his rumored split from his ex and new romance with Sabrina Carpenter.

The Saltburn actor, 32 clapped back at online trolls who disapproved of him as the parent of his 2-year-old son Brando during a September appearance on The Louis Theroux Podcast.

“There is a lot online. If I didn’t have the tough skin or the strength, I wouldn’t be here,” Keoghan told host Louis Theroux.

He went on to say, “Of course (his childhood) will impact my fatherhood, while I had no blueprint to draw from. People just read that as laziness and say, “Oh, that’s no excuse for being an absentee father.” I am not an absentee father.”

The Eternals star continued, “But it’s just, again, people like to use my son as ammunition or whatever. And it kind of makes me stop: the more attention I’ve gotten lately and the more public I’ve become, the less I’ve posted about my child because I don’t think it’s fair to say my child online. And because I had control over that, people pull a story and say, “Absent father, s–, lousy father,” and other disgusting things that I wouldn’t even repeat. Just the nerve of some people, man. It makes me sick, it makes me angry.”

Keoghan, who has a son named Brando with his ex-girlfriend Alyson Sandro, was reportedly alluding to comments he made during a Entertainment weekly interview in September about his relationship with his child while promoting his new film, Bird.