American actor Sylvester Stallone surprised listeners to a recent podcast when he disclosed that his mother tried to abort him.
The three-time Oscar winner was a guest on the very popular Unwaxed Podcast that’s hosted by his daughters Sophia and Sistine Stallone.
During the interview, Stallone talked about the dreadful way his mother treated him and talked to him as a child. He said she used to repeatedly say things to him, like: “The only reason you’re here is because the hanger didn’t work” or “bouncing down those steps didn’t cause you to get lost.’”
Both daughters looked visibly shocked as he opened up about his experiences as a child. Stallone, however, while acknowledging the tremendous hurt and confusion his mother’s behaviour caused him as a young boy, said that he also had sympathy and understanding towards her, saying: “My mother, she was was a troubled person. She was put into an orphanage, you know, and a very cruel orphanage because her father had remarried and the new stepmother hated her.”
Stallone said he believes that on account of his mother’s own childhood experiences “her ability to ever show love was short-circuited”, which in turn led to the “emotional abuse” and neglect he suffered as a child.
He said his upbringing affected his own relationships with people for a very long period of his life but that over the years he has come to terms with what happened and now leads a much happier and well adjusted life.
