The Torturous Upbringing Of Tyler Perry
Facebook/Tyler PerryTyler Perry was sexually molested by strangers and violently beaten by his father.
A self-made writer-director who has produced a litany of blockbuster films, Tyler Perry is one of the most successful filmmakers alive. The New Orleans native recently even managed to join the small American pantheon of Black billionaires. His graceful presence belies a truly tragic past, however, which nearly prevented him from ever doing so.
Born on Sept. 13, 1969, Emmitt Perry Jr. was so viciously abused by his father that he would describe his life as “a living hell.” He later revealed that he would wake up in fear on a regular basis, uncertain if his father would brutalize him that day or what he could do to avoid it. One afternoon, his father beat him to the bone.
“To this day, I don’t know why he did it,” said Perry. “But I remember him cornering me in a room and hitting me with this vacuum cleaner cord. He would just not stop. There are all these welts on me, the flesh that’s coming from my bone, and I had to wait for him to go to sleep. When he fell asleep, I ran to my aunt’s house.”
Though his aunt picked up a gun and warned Perry’s father never to hurt her nephew again, the abuse didn’t end — nor had it begun there. Perry was five or six years old when an adult male neighbor interrupted his treehouse playtime and reached into his pants. A male nurse and male churchgoer, too, would molest him.
Facebook/Tyler Perry / Wikimedia CommonsPerry survived his daily abuses to become one of America’s few Black billionaires.
“He used God and the Bible against me to justify a lot of the things that were going on,” said Perry. “It was so horrible. And that was my first sexual experience, with this man performing oral sex on me as a boy.”
Another one of his father’s beatings left Perry unconscious for three days. His father had ordered Perry to change his car tires but brutalized him when he failed. Perry wound up attempting suicide by cutting his wrists. He survived and eventually found solace in his mother’s care.
In a testament to his resilience, Perry legally changed his name from Emmitt to Tyler when he was 16 and overcame his distrust of adults. He became a Hollywood icon and even forgave his father — but never forgot his transgressions.
“I think that’s really important to be clear that just because you forgive somebody does not mean that you now want to be around them,” said Perry.
