Growing Up Getty

In an exclusive interview with USA Today ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" star Balthazar Getty has explained it is not easy growing up in a big family, regardless if its name is Walker or Getty.

The actor, his wife Rosetta (whom he married in 2000) and their three children (son Cassius, 6, and daughters Grace, 5, and Violet, 3) live in a soon-to-be renovated 1950s mansion in the Hollywood Hills.

A guesthouse at the property is devoted to Rosetta's clothing line, Riser Goodwyn, and jam sessions for Getty's band, Ringside. (He plays keyboard.)

The actor is heir to his great-grandfather Jean Paul Getty's billion-dollar oil fortune. The clan's seemingly glamorous and extravagant lifestyle was marred by a 1973 incident when Balthazar's father was kidnapped.

After the family initially refused to pay ransom, his father's ear was sliced off. The ransom was paid, and he was freed, but the kidnappers were never caught.



Balthazar has had his own share of drama when he battled substance abuse, an era marked by tattoos, now only fading reminders of those days that he is in painful process of removing.

Today, the actor enjoys being with children who often have at-home play dates with the kids of Getty's TV siblings Rachel Griffiths and Calista Flockhart.

He is also close friends with TV brothers Matthew Rhys and Dave Annable whom he welcomed last Christmas to his grandfather's country home in England, and Grey's Anatomy star Eric "McSteamy" Dane with whom he shares passion for motorcycles.



When "Brothers & Sisters" wraps production this spring the actor is planning to take son Cassius to Greece, then Ireland to visit his father, J. Paul Getty III, a man who was mostly absent during Getty's own childhood.

Getty's "hippie" mother, Gisela, lives in Germany and comes to stay with her son for a month each year.

Later this year Balthazar and wife Rosetta will welcome their fourth child.

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