Why Dakota Johnson Is So Special to Former Stepdad Antonio Banderas

Antonio Banderas revealed to E! News why former stepdaughter Dakota Johnson will always be family, despite his divorce from Melanie Griffith in 2015. Read on below.

Antonio Banderas and Dakota Johnson will always be family.

Banderas was married to Johnson's mother, Melanie Griffith, for 20 years before their split in 2015, which meant the Fifty Shades of Grey star spent a majority of her life with him as her stepfather. Despite the split, Johnson made it clear in November that she will always see Banderas as a father figure.

While presenting the 59-year-old with the Hollywood Actor Award for his performance in Pain and Glory at the Hollywood Film Awards on Nov. 3, Johnson was brought to tears as she talked about her former stepfather.

"He loved my mother, and my siblings and I so big, and so fiercely and so loud, that it would change all of our lives together," she shared.

In an interview with E! News at the 31st Palm Springs International Film Festival on Thursday, the Genius actor revealed he had no idea Johnson would be giving such a loving speech.

"It was all a surprise," he told E! News. "Totally. I mean, I knew that she was going to give the speech, but I had no idea whatsoever how she was going to just do her speech, she didn't tell me anything."

It was a poignant moment for the star, as it confirmed to him that the two decades they spent as a family meant just as much to her as they did to him.

"I thought and felt that all of those years," Banderas admitted. "But I knew that it was a confirmation that all of those years that Melanie and I spent together, they were years that was not only just about Melanie and me, they were about the family. They were worth it all."

The star went on to echo Johnson's sentiment from her speech, saying that he will always consider his former stepdaughter to be his family.

"And she put that on value that night and it was very emotional for me, because that's life," he said. "And that's one of the reasons actually why Melanie, we can look at each other‘s faces today."

"We will go for dinner. I'm going to see probably her tomorrow in Los Angeles, and we are pretty good friends," Banderas continued. "And it's because of the way we understood our relationship, and the relationship that we have with the people that love us and that were surrounding us, especially our kids. And I think Dakota took that expressing in a very beautiful way because she was, and she is and she will be very important to me."