A cult worth billions, living life as a revenge movie and hiding feelings with fast food and porn.
Terry Crews may seem like one of the happiest actors around, but he's no stranger to tragedy.
Terry Crews comes from a strict religious family in Flint, Michigan. As a child,
he wasn't allowed to play sports, listen to popular music, or go to a movie theater, as he
explained on ABC's "Popcorn With Peter Travers." Crews said that, at age nine, he begged his mom to
let him see "Star Wars" at a drive-in theater. That's when he realized what he was missing.
"I didn't know I was going to be an actor, but I was like,
'Somehow, someway, this changed my life!'"
The bigger problem for the "Brooklyn Nine-Nine”
star was his hot-tempered dad, as he told Wendy Williams -
"My father was addicted to alcohol and my mother was addicted to religion."
On an episode of "Running Wild with Bear Grylls," Crews said that he bulked up to
defend his mother from his father whenever he became abusive and beat her, saying -
"It was one of those things where I knew I would have to get stronger
because one day I thought I'd have to fight him."
According to USA Today, on Christmas Day 2000,
Crews' father smacked his wife so hard that according to the actor,
it messed up one of her teeth. Crews lept into action and admitted to beating up his father in
retaliation. Thinking he might feel some sense of relief or retribution for his mom, Crews said -
"I didn't feel one bit better. It left me with nothing."
Terry Crews had a less-than-stellar five-year career in the NFL. He played for the Los
Angeles Rams, the Green Bay Packers, and others before he retired in 1996,
though he may have burned a few bridges with some of his teammates after his departure. During a
2017 appearance on "First We Feast," he opened up about why he ditched the NFL for good, saying -
"I got a tryout with the 49ers [in 1997]. And they treated me
so bad. I mean, they treated me like I was dirt."
That, he explained, was the last straw and he told his wife that he was done with his
football career. In 2014, there was another dustup with the league. According to Sports Illustrated,
former players were suing the NFL for giving pain medications and other drugs
to its athletes so they could keep playing, despite the long term risks. On SI Now, Crews
was asked if he would decline drugs or surgery if a team doctor recommended it. In his answer,
the former linebacker suggested that the league may not be watching the players' backs, saying -
"It's really like a cult. I'm going to say it. The NFL is a cult […] you believe in it and
you're like 'They wouldn't do anything to hurt me. They never would.' And, uh oh, maybe they would."
When the former NFL star first showed up in Hollywood, he was
in for a rude awakening, as Crews told Inc. -
"It was a big shock to me. I moved to Los Angeles
thinking that because I was a football player, I was going to get a lot of big
opportunities. They didn't even have a football team then, nobody cared!"
In a 2014 interview with HuffPost,
the "America's Got Talent" host recalled his first job in California, saying -
"I picked up a broom and I was sweeping factories […] I was like,
'This is horrible, I can't do this.'"
In an essay for The Wall Street Journal, Crews wrote -
"I could not believe how far my life had come down, from the NFL to this."
But he swallowed his pride and continued to push that broom,
telling CNBC that he was never broke again after that.
Before quitting football, the former linebacker created his
own cottage industry. On "Jimmy Kimmel Live," he explained that after being cut from a team,
he would ask the players if they wanted him to paint their portraits.
"It would literally take me about two months to do a painting, and they would
give me like five grand and I would survive off that. My whole family survived off that."
Many pro athletes struggle with their post-retirement transitions,
and Terry Crews was no exception. He was depressed after going from professional athlete to barely
scraping by, and he turned to fast food for comfort. After indulging himself in burgers,
fries, and bags of cookies, he packed on 30 pounds, sharing with ABC News -
"I learned that a lot of the eating thing and any
problem with eating has a lot to do more with your emotions."
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter about his memoir, "Tough," Crews revealed
that despite his early success, he would often get depressed as soon as a project was done, saying:
"I had determined my worth through the opinions of other people. So, it was like, if everyone
loved me then I was great. But if I wasn't working […] I was a failure […] I was never satisfied."
In his 2014 book, "Manhood," the "White Chicks" actor explained that
his mental state was intertwined with his porn addiction, writing -
"I soon established a pattern where, anytime I was dealing with anxiety,
I acted out with pornography. On the one hand, I felt bad because I knew I
shouldn't do so, but at the same time, it was exhilarating, a rush, like taking a drug."
Terry Crews was obsessed with porn from a very young age, telling Wendy Williams
in 2015 that he had been addicted since he was 12 years old. The following year,
he posted a series of videos on Facebook, coming clean about his
"Dirty Little Secret." He started by dispelling the myth that nobody can be addicted to porn.
"If day turns into night and you are still watching,
you probably got a problem. And that was me."
He explained how it impacted him, going onto say -
"It changes the way you think about people. People become objects. People become body parts;
they become things to be used rather than people to be loved."
Terry Crews shared that his addiction threatened his marriage, and wanting to change, he went
to rehab and kicked the porn habit, but never spoke to anyone about it, including his wife,
for years. His addiction and his silence drove the couple apart, with Crews telling People -
"Every time I watched it, I was walled off. It was like another brick that came
between me and my wife. [...] Fame made it worse! Hollywood
didn't care. It still doesn't care if you lose your family. It happens every day."
In 2010, after two decades together, Terry Crews' marriage to singer Rebecca King-Crews
had reached its breaking point. In their 2021 audio memoir "Stronger
Together," Rebecca recounts what they refer to as their "D-Day." After Terry
opened up about his porn addiction and being unfaithful, she said -
"It was like death."
Rebecca threatened to walk out on him and Terry
admitted he couldn't stop crying. She would stay in her bedroom for days,
and the children were caught in the middle of it. Terry eventually patched things up with Rebecca,
after he did the work in rehab and therapy. In his Facebook confession, Terry said -
"I did not get help so I could get my wife back […] I got help because
I needed it […] She did decide to stay with me because she knew I was repentant."
Terry's control issues also created tension over the years in their
marriage. In a recent interview with Newsweek, the "Everybody Hates Chris"
actor said he had to learn how to be an equal partner with his wife, admitting -
"Growing up, I was always told that to be a man you had to take ownership of your house and
everyone in it. I had to realize that you cannot love someone and control them at the same time."
After growing up in a violent home, it took Terry Crews a while to admit he
had anger management issues of his own, saying during a panel at the 2018 Teen Vogue Summit -
"I've been involved in some of the most competitive,
toxic environments you could probably ever be in […] but I was also a card-carrying member."
The "Expendables 3" actor said that his anger issues were on full display while raising his
eldest daughter, and while speaking to ET, Crews admitted he had a history of popping off, saying -
"You have to understand - I lived life like it was a revenge movie. [...] I'm
gonna get everybody back who ever did anything wrong to me ever."
One time, after a man was disrespectful to his wife, he slammed a guy head-first
onto the concrete, after which Rebecca pulled him aside for a serious talk.
"She said, 'At the minimum, you're gonna get sued,
okay? And at the maximum, someone is going to kill you.'"
In "Tough," Crews wrote why he believes controlling your
anger is actually a sign of strength, writing -
"Anytime you're acting out of anger, you are not in control. You're allowing yourself to
be provoked. To be filled with anger and rage is to be powerless and weak."
In 2017, Terry Crews became one of the first men to come forward with his story
as part of the #MeToo Movement. With a series of tweets, he shared that while he and his wife
were at a Hollywood function, an executive came over and groped his privates. Then,
in an interview on "Good Morning America," the actor identified the executive as Adam Venit,
a high-powered talent agent with William Morris Endeavor, also known as WME.
"He comes over to me, I stick my hand out,
and he literally takes his hand and puts it and squeezes my genitals."
Crews went on to speak about how he felt powerless after the incident, saying -
"When a person of power breaks that boundary and violates that boundary, you're a prisoner of war."
He also spoke about being unfairly judged once the story broke,
telling Newsweek that he was victim-shamed and said -
"I remember a time when people told me 'it's impossible for you to get sexually
assaulted. You're too big.' But that's like saying you're too big to get shot."
According to USA Today, Crews filed a lawsuit against Venit and WME, which was settled in 2018.
According to a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Venit was planning to leave the agency.
Following Terry Crews' sexual assault allegations, he was invited to testify
before the Senate Judiciary Committee about a bill to support sexual assault survivors, saying -
"What happened to me has happened to many,
many other men in Hollywood, and since I came forward with my story,
I have had thousands and thousands of men come to me and say, 'Me too, this is my story."
After filing his lawsuit, Crews said calls stopped coming in and he was in
danger of being blacklisted as a result of speaking out. In 2018, he told BuzzFeed -
"People don't understand that Hollywood is a very
violent place. The best way to put it is that it's like a plantation."
A year later, on "The Clay Cane Show" for Sirius XM, he
was asked if he felt freed, to which he replied -
"I ran away, I'm the slave that ran away […] You got to understand, I mean,
I was being followed, our phones were tapped […] you talking a lot of money,
a billion dollar industry. The whole point was to find dirt on me that they could use against me."
In spite of it all, Crews's career seems to be thriving, with the actor telling Buzzfeed -
"They don't want to see me comment, but I'm not going anywhere."
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please contact the
Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741, call the National Alliance on Mental Illness
helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264), or visit the National Institute of Mental Health website.