Sophia Maddox has revealed that her father still has not watched her documentary about their family’s Manson connection.
The 26-year-old filmmaker spoke out about the ongoing rift with Daniel Arguelles, 66, during recent press for “My Grandfather Charles Manson,” which premiered July 22 on Hulu. Maddox said that she does not know whether her father has seen the film, and that he has not reached out since their falling out one week before production began.
“I don’t know if he’s seen the film,” Maddox said. “He hasn’t reached out. So I’m just sitting back and respecting his wishes until he reaches back out.”
The documentary chronicles Maddox’s journey after Arguelles discovered through an Ancestry.com DNA test in 2022 that Manson was his biological father. Arguelles, who was raised by his mother and stepfather, had submitted his DNA in 2015 hoping to solve decades of questions about his paternity. He matched with Michael Brunner, Manson’s youngest known son, and testing confirmed they were half-brothers with a 99.99998% probability of sharing the same father.
Maddox recalled receiving the phone call from her father while she was living in Los Angeles, working odd jobs including babysitting and teaching ballet to make rent. “He told me he thinks he found out who his father is, and if it’s true, it’s really dark,” Maddox said. “He wasn’t sure if I was ready to know. And my dad is not a dark person. He never taught me any dark things. So if he says it’s dark, my first thought is it must be famously dark.”
She immediately guessed Ted Bundy. “He said, ‘Bigger. Think of the biggest movie you know and the biggest director you know,'” Maddox recalled. “And I thought of the movie ‘Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood.’ I was trying to remember the name mentioned in the film. And then I realized who it was: Charles Manson.”
Maddox said she Googled Manson’s name and felt her stomach knot. “I thought to myself, ‘That’s my dad,'” she said. “It was a really devastating day.”
Despite the shock, Maddox felt compelled to document her family’s story. “I’m a filmmaker before I found out who my grandfather is,” she said. “And my life got uprooted from this. I had something to say at that moment, and I couldn’t bottle it up.” She began recording herself processing the revelation before teaming with co-director Alexandra Orton to create the Hulu documentary.
The film features Maddox meeting former Manson followers including Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, Dianne Lake, and Stephanie Schram, as well as examining previously unreleased records about Manson’s troubled childhood. She visited the Indiana Boys School where Manson was institutionalized as a juvenile, learning he was housed alongside older youths with violent records despite his own offenses being limited to running away and theft.
“I was shocked to read that he was imprisoned with kids who had murdered people,” Maddox said. “And he was there for running away from home, stealing a bike or stealing a car. But so many boys, older kids with violent records, were placed there. And what does a kid have to do to survive a place like that? It breaks my heart.”
She added that understanding Manson’s past was never about excusing his crimes. “My intention is never to apologize or justify for anybody’s actions,” Maddox said. “I know what my grandfather did.”
The documentary also captures the strain the investigation placed on Maddox’s relationship with her father. Arguelles had initially encouraged the film and sat for an interview, but confronting his biological father’s past ultimately became too painful. “I have a little more distance from Manson because I am the grandchild, but that’s his father,” Maddox explained. “And he’s shared similar experiences in childhood as him. And my dad is a very sensitive person. [But] he was curious. He wanted answers. He wanted me to make this film. But then at the same time, it was all too much.”
Arguelles offered a brief statement to Fox News Digital about the rift. “I still support Sophia and I’m very proud of her,” he said. “I believe the falling out between us came from a difference of opinion on the overall narrative. That’s really all I can say at this point.”
In the viral moment that first brought national attention to their story, Maddox and Arguelles had been a united front processing the DNA revelation. Arguelles learned that he was born in 1959 from a brief relationship between his mother, Darlene Arguelles, and Manson, who was using the alias “Charlie Dear” at the time. Darlene had met Manson at a bus stop when she was 17 and never told her son the truth about his paternity before her death in 2020. The discovery made Arguelles Manson’s fourth known son, joining Charles Manson Jr. (later Jay White), Charles Luther Manson (later Jay Charles Warner), and Michael Brunner.
Maddox described herself and her father as “normal, working-class citizens” with no criminal records. “We grew up as artists,” she said. “My dad showed me the movies he made and his modeling photos of him photographed by Richard Avedon. So of course, when you learn that someone like Manson is your grandfather, it’s normal to wonder, ‘Am I that too?’ People have asked me, ‘Were you afraid that you inherited evil, that you were evil?’ But my dad and I are very normal, hardworking people.”
The documentary also follows Maddox’s decision to reclaim her family name. After investigating her heritage, she learned that “Maddox” meant “goodness.” “My blood name means goodness. I’m going to own it. That’s mine. I’m giving it new life,” she said in the film.
Maddox said Los Angeles that she has been in talks with relatives of Manson’s victims during filming, describing the encounters as “very lovely,” She said they “understood why I am telling this story.”
The Manson Family murders took place over two nights in August 1969, when followers killed pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others at her Benedict Canyon home on August 9, followed by the stabbing deaths of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca the next night. Manson died in prison in 2017 at age 83 while serving a life sentence.
Maddox said she remains hopeful about reconciling with her father. “I’m just sitting back and respecting his wishes until he reaches back out,” she repeated.
“My Grandfather Charles Manson” is currently streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers in the U.S., with international distribution on Disney+.