After years of therapy, Jake Paul has opened up about forgiving his father for his past mental and physical abuse.
To talk Hollywood Reporter Ahead of his highly publicized boxing match against Mike Tyson, Paul revealed his parents went through an “ugly” divorce when he was seven and his brother Logan was nine. While the siblings rose to fame with their YouTube presence, their parents were weaponizing their children against each other. “It was tough in the beginning, really tough,” admitted the boys' mother, Pam.
“For as long as I can remember, my dad was always pitting Jake and I against each other over who could run faster, who could score more goals, who could get higher grades,” Logan said.
“There was mental manipulation and my mom was trying to get me on her side and my dad was trying to get me on his side,” Jake explained. “All these games, crazy and just psychological crazy.”
But it wasn't until Jake entered therapy in his 20s that he began to reconcile the years of physical abuse he had suffered on the part of his father. “He was punching us, slapping us, throwing us down the stairs, throwing things at us, mentally abusing us, manipulating us,” Jake said. “Tell him you were on the phone,” he said of his father, “and my brother and I were whispering to each other. And he said, 'Stop whispering!' he said. and throws something at my head.
When TRWhen 's Seth Abramovitch asked if the abuse was intended as “corporal punishment,” Jake replied: “There's punishment, and then there's abuse. He took it out on us. He was going through a divorce, losing everything, and we were the closest people to him.”
Thanks to therapy, Jake was able to forgive his father and make peace with his past. Although his father refused to comment, they remain close to this day. TRProfile of user. However, Jake believes the reason he is so pro at social media or boxing is because of his “hidden and abusive” relationship with his father.
“I think it creates something where you look for validation elsewhere,” he thought. “I have this latent energy of needing approval because my father didn't give me much. I need to heal this, know it's there, and love myself more.