James McAvoys Family Estrangement: A Hidden Son

James McAvoy shocked fans this week when he . 

The Scottish actor - who shares 15-year-old son Brendan with ex Anne-Marie Duff - revealed that he also has a four-year-old son with wife Lisa Liberati when he declared that having a kid at 42 was 'easier' than the first time round because he 'worries less'. 

While the news came as a surprise to fans, it was also no doubt a shock to his younger brother Donald, with whom he is believed to have no contact. 

The half-siblings have followed very different paths, with James achieving Hollywood stardom and Donald currently languishing in HMP Saughton in . 

Their lives couldn't look more different, given James is currently on the promo trail for his directorial debut, Schemin', while Donald is facing a possible life sentence after slashing a fellow inmate’s face with blade.

Indeed, the only thing the pair seem to have in common is their late father James Senior, a bus driver-turned-builder, who was estranged from James for decades before his passing. 

BAFTA winner James was just seven when James Snr and his mother Elizabeth Johnstone separated. 

He was raised by his maternal grandparents, butcher James Johnstone and lorry driver Mary, who lived the street over on on a council estate in Glasgow’s tough Drumchapel district. 

They agreed to look after James and his younger sister Joy (now an actor herself in TV’s Two Doors Down) despite having five kids of their own, and Elizabeth would also live with them from time to time.

James Snr stayed living nearby with new partner Mary McKinnon and their son Donald. 

While James Jnr maintained a relationship with his mother until her death in 2018, he stopped talking to his father at the age of 12. 

He has refused to be drawn into the exact details surrounding their estrangement, saying: ‘It's boring. I don't want to talk about it. I know what happened and I know what didn't happen.’

For his part, James Snr claimed that his son turned against him when he moved on with his new partner.   

'I think James still had hopes of me and his mum sorting things out,' James Snr previously told Daily Mail. 

'He started refusing to see me because he didn't like Mary. In the end I took a step back rather than upset him.'

Yet in 2006, after James won the Rising Star award at the 2006 BAFTAs, his father made a public plea for reconciliation, saying he'd love to get in touch, 'but I don't know how to reach him'.

James did not take him up on the offer, and when questioned about it he confessed that while he had heard about the plea he had not been compelled to read the interview. 

He told The Guardian: 'Quite strange. Strange because that's more the kind of story you expect to see about people who matter, people who've done something important, who make a difference in the world.

'I can't really be bothered with it. If I was less secure in myself, I might be more interested. But I know what made me, I know why I am the way I am.

‘I don't need to go hunting for missing answers. I know what happened and I know what didn't happen, and I know who I want to be and how to get there.'

Certainly their lack of relationship didn't hold James back professionally, who got a foot in the door of the acting world after asking David Hayman for work experience when the Scottish director came to give a talk at his school.

After graduating from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, James' big TV break came in 2004 with Shameless on Channel 4, where he also met his first wife, fellow actor Anne-Marie.

The following year he won plaudits as Mr Tumnus, the faun in the blockbuster Narnia film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, which led to his Rising Star BAFTA.

By 2008, James had been nominated for two more BAFTAs in successive years for his parts in The Last King of Scotland and Atonement.

In contrast, that same year Donald, aged 19, was jailed for stabbing a man eight times in a frenzied attack and threatening a 14-year-old with a hammer.

Later he was given nine months for abducting and beating a father-of-four over an unpaid drug debt.

James Snr was then reported in the Daily Mail as telling friends in desperation: 'I've tried everything to keep him straight.’

Discussing his elder son, he held out hope for a reconciliation, telling friends: 'It would be great to talk, but it's been so long. 

'James stopped talking to me when he was a child. But I'm proud of how good a job his mum and grandparents did of bringing him up.'

However, the pair did not patch things up before James Snr's death.

It is not known exactly when James Snr died. 

He was last reported about in 2013 when both he and younger son Donald appeared in court on drug dealing charges after being accused with selling cocaine out of their flat.

The pair made no plea and were released on bail.

It was later revealed James Snr had left Donald a ‘sizeable legacy’ from his estate.

The news was made public during a court hearing in 2023. At the time Donald had been serving a 'roll-up' sentence of five years and 10 months for a string of offences, including a road-rage attack on a 57-year-old grandfather. 

He had been set for release in March 2025 but was slapped with an additional 15 months after confessing to possessing illegal razor blades and a prohibited mobile phone SIM card in his cell at Glenochil Prison.

Donald's lawyer Ian Sievwright said: 'Mr McAvoy’s father died whilst he’s been in prison.

'He has inherited a sizeable amount of money from his father’s estate, and that may allow him the financial resources to avoid criminality when he is eventually released.

'He’s been a prisoner for a long time, and he is determined for his daughter’s sake that when he leaves prison he will lead a pro-social lifestyle and provide for her and fully participate in raising her.' 

Donald is currently facing a life sentence after admitting to slashing another prisoner's face at HMP Saughton. 

Lawyers at the High Court in Edinburgh this month saw footage of Donald dragging a blade which he had hidden in his clothes across Colin Lindsay’s face on October 21, 2025.

He pleaded guilty last month to a charge of assault with a 'bladed implement to severe injury, permanent disfigurement, and to the danger of his life.

Donald - who has more than 40 previous convictions - is now being assessed to see whether a lifelong restriction is appropriate.  

Judge Norman McFadyen said: 'It is clear to me that you have met the criteria for risk needed for the making of an order for lifelong restriction.

'I shall therefore call for a report into whether such an order should be met in this case. You will appear before me again.'

The case will next call before judge McFadyen on June 9, 2026.