Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone has opened up about his painful childhood. The actor revealed shocking details about violence, neglect and emotional distance from his parents.
He shared the experience in a candid interview with The New York Times. Stallone also discussed his upcoming memoir, The Steps. He admitted leaving out some painful memories because he did not want people to pity him.
“I didn’t put a lot of stuff in the book because I didn’t want a pity party… but it was insane,” he said.
After his parents divorced, Stallone lived with his father in Maryland. He described his father as volatile and physically abusive. One incident remains particularly painful. Stallone said his father attacked him after he returned from a store with the wrong bread.
“He kicked me in the stomach and hit me and like laid me out,” he recalled.
His father then drove to church, leaving him lying in the street. Years later, Stallone confronted him about the abuse. He told his father he wanted them to be the same age for three minutes.
“I’d like to give you some of your own medicine,” Stallone said.
Beyond the physical abuse, Stallone also struggled with emotional neglect. He said his mother never hugged him.
“My mother never — and my brother will attest — hugged me. Ever, ever,” he revealed.
His father also rarely showed affection. However, Stallone remembers one tender moment from childhood. After working with his father’s horses, he fell asleep in a car. His father placed his head on his knee and rested a hand on him.
“And I never got over that,” Stallone said.
Sylvester Stallone believes those experiences made him tough, but they also came with a heavy cost. He said he was raised by strangers in a boarding house while his parents visited once a month.
“It made me very tough,” he admitted, “in the wrong way.”
The actor also said he did not experience true love until later in life. Today, he is a father of five and shares three daughters with Jennifer Flavin. His two sons came from his first marriage to Sasha Czack. Stallone says his difficult childhood helped shape the fierce characters he later played, including Rambo.
