Why did Tyler Perry attempt suicide? Actor recalls mental health battle amid Stephen 'tWitch' Boss' death
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Actor and acclaimed filmmaker Tyler Perry opened up about his own suicide attempts after hearing about the death of Stephen "tWitch" Boss, who was widely known for being the longtime DJ from ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’, on December 13, 2022, at a hotel in Los Angeles. Tyler revealed that he attempted suicide “a couple of times.”
In a video posted to his Instagram with the caption "Life...," Tyler said, "I've only met [Boss] a couple of times, but he always full of life and seemed like such a light. I didn't think it would get any better. I had endured so much pain, so much abuse, sexual abuse. It was all so hard to just move through I thought the only way to make this better, this pain to go away is by ending my life. Had any of those attempts happened, I would have missed the best part of my life."
READ MORE
The 53-year-old said he is now "the happiest he's ever been," and urged people viewing the video who are "going through some things," to contact someone for help. He also recommended they call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. "My hope is that if you need help, that you reach out," he said and added, "Call this number. God bless you. I'm with you. I'm a living witness you can make it through it. I'm so glad my attempts didn't work. I'm still alive. The best part of my life, and I would've missed it had I decided to end it."
'Boys don’t cry, shut up and move on'
According to People, Tyler was sexually molested by three different men and a woman by the time he was 10. "I didn’t know what was going on or the far-reaching effects of it. I just moved through it. Go on to the next thing. ‘Boys don’t cry, shut up and move on.' Holding on to all of that, not knowing what to do with it, there was a lot of anger in my teenage years, in my 20s. A lot of anger, a lot of confusion, a lot of frustration trying to just be OK,” he recollected.
Also, Tyler mentioned one incident that he'll never forget is when his father brutally hit him with a vacuum cord. He said, as stated by Oprah, "To this day, I don't know why he did it. 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, and she was mortified when she saw it."
He told People, "[It took] a tremendous amount of prayer. But the biggest thing that helped me understand it is that me holding on to what I was holding on to wasn’t hurting him…but it was killing me. I’m telling you, the shift and forgiveness in me left me raw because it was a weight inside. Once I let it go, I literally felt lighter inside. I chose to be as positive and inspirational and I can, because I don’t want to feel that again.”
