“Star Trek” brothers for life.
William Shatner defended his bond with late co-star Leonard Nimoy after Nimoy’s son, television director Adam Nimoy, claimed that the “Star Trek” actors didn’t get along in his new book, “The Most Human: Reconciling with My Father, Leonard Nimoy.”
Shatner, 93, exclusively told The Post that Adam, 67, “wasn’t around” when Shatner and Leonard worked together.
“He didn’t know. He was too young to know my relationship with Leonard,” said Shatner, who recently came out with a new children’s album, “Where Will the Animals Sleep?“
“I don’t know what he said in his book, but my relationship with Leonard was one of joy. To be able to share something with another human being with the full knowledge that what you’re saying is sacrosanct and personal,” the “Miss Congeniality” star continued. “So we talked about divorce and death and children and life.”
He added: “We were able to share knowing that what we were sharing was between us and only between us.”
Shatner noted that Leonard was the “brother I never had.”
“He was my dearest friend,” he told the Post. “And I never had a friend like him. I never had a relationship with any male guy like the relationship I had with Leonard. I loved him, and I believe he loved me. We were brothers.”
In his new book, Adam claimed that his father — who died in 2015 at age 83 — had a contentious relationship with Shatner back in the day.
Adam wrote in his book, “Years later, when he was sober and being interviewed by no less than Bill Shatner, Dad admitted his habitual drinking began in the 1960s to cope with the pressures of making ‘Star Trek.’ What he didn’t say during that segment — and later confided in me — was that his drinking was the result of long hours on the set, the difficult producers, and his problems with Bill Shatner.”
However, Shatner told The Post that he had a “rare” bond with Leonard where they opened up to each other about personal things.
“You never know with other people or who are fans or people who… it’s very difficult to find somebody that is so personally involved that you trust them completely,” he said. “It’s very rare. And I had that with Leonard.”
“So I don’t know what his son wrote, but the son was never around,” Shatner added, noting that Adam “had a bad relationship” with Leonard.
“So I hope that Adam is kind,” Shatner said.
Adam openly wrote about the ups and downs that the father-son duo experienced before Leonard’s passing in his book.
In an interview with Page Six, Adam claimed that he knows the reason for Shatner and Leonard’s alleged beef, but he’s keeping the truth to himself because he wants to “let sleeping dogs lie.”
“It’s unfortunate, it’s sad,” said Adam, calling his father’s relationship with Shatner “very challenging” despite “a period of time where they were really beautifully together.”
In 2016, Shatner wrote a memoir, “Leonard: My Fifty-Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man,” where he revealed that he and Leonard were not on speaking terms for the last five years of Leonard’s life.
He said at the time that the deterioration of his relationship with Leonard was “sad” and “permanent.”
Shatner and Leonard played Capt. James T. Kirk and Spock, respectively, in the original run of the “Star Trek” TV series from 1966 to 1969 and in several films from the sci-fi franchise.
“The Most Human: Reconciling With My Father, Leonard Nimoy” is out Tuesday, June 4.
