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'Madea' actor-director Tyler Perry reveals history of childhood abuse,
molestation on Web site
Monday, October 5th 2009, 3:02 PM
Fukada/AP/AP
Writer, producer, and film
director Tyler Perry has come forward with public revelations about abuse he
suffered as a child.
Filmmaker Tyler Perry, who is
promoting a new movie about an abused teenager, has gone public with brutal
memories of his own childhood beatings and molestation.
In an email to fans that has Perry's admirers buzzing, he recounts various
examples of terrible childhood mistreatment - from his father beating him
senseless to a neighbor woman molesting him at age 10.
Even his grandmother, the mother of his hated father, became a threat when
she objected to his weekly allergy shot, he recalls.
"Ain't nothing wrong with that damn boy - he just got germs on him. Stop
wasting all that money," she said, he recalled.
"She came and got me out of the living room leaving my Matchbox cars on
the floor. She said she was going to kill these germs on me once and for all.
She gave me a bath in ammonia."
Perry, 38, fled his abusive home in New Orleans and, after
a period of homelessness and struggle, became a writer, director, actor and
producer.
He is now a mega-millionaire and one of the world's most influential black
filmmakers. He is the producer of "Tyler
Perry's House of Payne" on TV and his movies, including "Diary of a Mad
Black Woman," "Madea's Family Reunion" and "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" have
grossed $400 million.
Along with Oprah Winfrey, he
executive produced "Precious," the story of an illiterate obese teen mom
struggling to rise above horrible sexual and mental abuse. The movie opens
nationally Nov. 6.
Perry has made no secret of his unhappy childhood and speaks often of his
abusive father, but the raw details in his email were new revelations.
"I'm tired of holding this in. I don't know what to do with it anymore, so,
I've decided to give some of it away," he wrote in Saturday's email, which was
also posted on his website.
He recounted being beaten by his father for reading books and filching
cookies.
"He got the vacuum cleaner extension cord and trapped me in a room and beat
me until the skin was coming off my back. To this day, I don't know what would
make a person do something like that to a child," Perry wrote.
Without elaborating on what seems to be another molestation incident, he
mentioned "a man that I knew from church when I was a kid" who had died broke
and whose family asked Perry to pay for the funeral.
"I quickly said no, but I wish I would have said yes. There is something so
powerful to me in burying the man that molested me," Perry wrote.
"I would have dug the grave myself."
Perry said God sustained him, and provided comfort in his darkest times.
Terrie Williams,
author of "Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We're Not Hurting," praised Perry for
sharing his old misery.
"When someone like Tyler Perry posts this kind of personal message it helps
to free others," Williams said.
"People are suffering unspeakable, horrific horrors and they live with those
secrets that tear them up inside," she said.
"There are countless numbers of people who have been violated and haven't
addressed their pain and that leads to depression, or self medicating, drinking,
drug abuse, compulsive shopping when you don't have any money or eating
disorders. Share your story to liberate yourself and get help."
link: https://www.tylerperry.com/_Messages/