Comedian Pete Davidson has made quite a name for himself. But in his path to stardom on
Saturday Night Live and the big screen, he's had to overcome many obstacles, like mental
health issues and the loss of his father. This is his tragic real-life story.
One of the biggest tragedies in Pete Davidson's life happened when he was only 7 years old.
During the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, his firefighter father Scott lost
his life while rescuing people trapped at the Marriott World Trade Center hotel. After
he made his way into the building, the tower where the hotel was located soon collapsed
after it was hit by the second hijacked plane.
Losing his father at such a young age was extremely traumatic for Davidson, who sought
help from mental health professionals. Scott Davidson reportedly had a terrific sense of
humor just like his son. He was only 33 years old when he died that day. In 2014, Pete memorialized
his dad by tweeting,
"Can't believe it's been 13 years. Feels like it was just yesterday. Words can't express
how much I miss you."
"He was a very good dude, uh, and I have a lot of jokes about it, and if you don't like
the first one, you probably won't like the rest."
After losing his father, Davidson found it tough to confront his demons and deal with
everything he was going through. While growing up, he was prone to releasing his emotions
in unusual ways. As his mother Amy told The New York Times in 2015,
"It was sad how sad he was growing up."
One time in school, Davidson pulled out all his hair in frustration, and as he told the
Times, in many ways he became a, quote, "lab rat" for physicians who were trying to understand
the experiences of the children of victims of the terror attacks. As he told the Times,
"It was overwhelming."
Davidson wasn't spared by his classmates as he experienced bullying from them. In a 2016
interview with radio DJ Peter Rosenberg, he revealed that he had just one friend whom
he could trust in high school, while many other kids weren't very nice to him. As he
put it,
"I was in school having a rough time grieving so I was acting out a little bit. I didn't
have any friends."
Davidson was drawn to comedy from a young age. In fact, he was still a teenager when
he performed for the first time. At the age of 16, he took to the stage at the Looney
Bin Comedy Club in his native Staten Island. He was a little awkward and a bit unsure of
himself, but he nevertheless went ahead and put on an impressive act, delivering the most
unusual lines without batting an eyelid. For example, he cracked a joke about being attracted
to cougars with the punchline:
"I think 21-year-olds are so hot."
His act back then is a lot like his act now, as he prefers to just be himself. As he explained
to The Ringer in 2020,
"I don't know how to act or write characters or do impressions."
For Davidson, comedy clubs felt like a safe haven where he could finally blend in and
feel at ease. It also helped that he had the support of his mom, who would take him to
his stand-up gigs. As she told The New York Times in 2015,
"He had a tough time growing up without a dad — I wanted him to be happy, and this
made him really, really happy."
Ever since his teenage years, Davidson has been battling a chronic illness. He was first
diagnosed with Crohn's disease when he was around 17 or 18, but he's learned to live
with it. He received medical assistance and whatever he needed from his doctors, but the
only thing that seemed to work for him was marijuana. In a 2016 interview with High Times,
he revealed,
"My stomach would just be in pain all day and I wouldn't be able to eat, and then I'd
smoke, I'd be able to eat and be able to do my shows."
"I wouldn't be able to do SNL if I didn't smoke weed, and I wouldn't be able to do anything,
really."
Crohn's disease is a chronic ailment that can result in inflammation of the gastrointestinal
tract. Symptoms include such unpleasant experiences as constipation, cramps, diarrhea, and rectal
bleeding. Despite living with Crohn's for years, Davidson hasn't let the illness bring
him down, and he's also had the support of his loved ones. When he got bullied for dark
circles under his eyes, which can be a symptom of Crohn's, his then-girlfriend Ariana Grande
shot back at haters by tweeting,
"Y'all do [know] this man has an auto immune disease …... right?"
While marijuana has helped Davidson deal with his medical troubles, it's also had a negative
impact, as he found himself becoming addicted to the point that he's had to check himself
into rehab. He's never shied away from speaking about this particular aspect of his journey.
In 2017, he opened up about beating addiction by writing on Instagram,
"I quit drugs and am happy and sober for the first time in 8 years. It wasn’t easy, but
I got a great girl, great friends and I consider myself a lucky man."
Davidson has also been open about this part of his life while performing on SNL. During
an appearance on Weekend Update in December 2019, he quipped,
"I'm going on a little 'vacation.' You know, the kind of vacation where insurance pays
for some of it, and they take your phone and shoelaces. And you have roommates but it still
costs like a hundred grand."
"I hope you know, Pete, that a lot of people really care about you."
"Oh yeah, sure."
And in addition to helping Davidson with his drug use, rehab also proved to be beneficial
for his mental health.
In addition to all his other struggles, Davidson is also living with borderline personality
disorder, a mental illness that manifests in a pattern of unstable relationships, a
distorted sense of one's self, and a tendency towards strong emotional reactions. He was
diagnosed with BPD in 2017. Around that time, he took to Instagram to write at length about
how his behavior had led to others lashing out at him. As he put it,
"I've been getting online bullied and in public by people for 9 months. I’ve spoken about
BPD and being suicidal publicly only in the hopes that it will help bring awareness and
help kids like myself who don’t want to be on this earth. I just want you guys to
know."
He added,
"No matter how hard the internet or anyone tries to make me kill myself. I won’t. I’m
upset I even have to say this. To all those holding me down and seeing this for what it
is – I see you and I love you."
Mental health experts praised Davidson for choosing to go public with his diagnosis.
For example, Sophie Lazarus, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Ohio State University
Wexner Medical Center, noted that it could go a long way in helping to take away the
stigma attached to the illness. As she told Today,
"Someone who thinks they are untreatable or overly emotional or damaged might see this
and look up what the symptoms [are] and seek treatment."
When it comes to Pete Davidson's love life, things have been rocky, to say the least.
He was dating Ariana Grande for a little while, and they hit it off so well that they even
ended up getting engaged in June 2018. But it didn't work out, as they split up in October
of that year. As a source close to Grande told People Magazine,
"It was way too much too soon. It’s not shocking to anyone."
Davidson was majorly impacted by the breakup, and he even deleted his social media accounts
in the wake of the split. The timing was especially difficult, as about a month earlier, Grande's
ex-boyfriend Mac Miller had passed away from a drug overdose.
Before his relationship with Grande, Davidson was linked from 2016 to 2018 to Cazzie David,
daughter of comedian Larry David. He began dating Grande just days after the breakup.
In Cazzie's 2020 essay collection No One Asked for This, she revealed that when she found
out that Davidson had decided to conceal his tattoos that were dedicated to her after they
broke up, she felt distraught and worried. As she described it,
"I felt like I was being terrorized."
In 2020, it was rumored that Davidson was in a relationship with model Kaia Gerber,
although they ultimately ended up splitting as well.
In December 2018, soon after his breakup with Ariana Grande, Davidson scared his family
and friends when he took to Instagram to share a message that was highly unsettling. As he
wrote,
"I really don't want to be on this earth anymore. I'm doing my best to stay here for you but
I actually don't know how much longer I can last. All I've ever tried to do was help people.
Just remember I told you so."
After posting this message, Davidson deleted his account, but plenty of people were quick
to react. The New York Police Department went to check in on him and made sure that he was
safe. His message received comments from fans offering him support. Unfortunately, a few
were less than supportive, as they encouraged him to take his own life, but he also received
support from some famous friends, with rapper Kid Cudi tweeting,
"Thinkin about U Pete. Hit me back bro"
Thankfully, nothing irreversibly tragic happened, and he actually appeared on Saturday Night
Live later that day. This may have been the most public case of Davidson struggling with
thoughts about killing himself, but it wasn't the first. As he revealed in a 2018 interview
with Variety, he once tried to drown himself in a pool when he was in the fourth or fifth
grade.
Davidson has a significant number of tattoos, and they've served as a sort of therapy for
him. He's used them to reclaim his voice, express himself, and cover up the scars he
has from self-harm, as he would often hurt himself by cutting to deal with his emotions.
During a 2020 interview with Charlamagne tha God, he discussed how he knew that he needed
to get professional help. He revealed that he knows things are going south when he ends
up cutting himself and things feel a bit too unbearable, or even when his loved ones come
up to him and say something like,
"Hey, we're all like worried, so you should go [get help]."
Davidson also noted that he has a good circle of friends and loved ones who care about him
and his mental health. One of his tattoos serves as a tribute to family, as his left
arm bears the digits "8418," which were his father's firefighter badge number.
One of the most surprising and sad revelations is that Pete Davidson has felt bullied during
his time on Saturday Night Live. In his 2020 interview with Charlamagne tha God, he got
candid by confessing that he hasn't always been fully aware of what was happening on
the show. He explained that while he felt extremely excited about the gig at first,
he realized that he was eventually often being targeted in the jokes in some of the sketches.
As he put it,
"I have a weird feeling in that building where I don't know whose team they're playing for,
really. If I'm the joke or I'm in on the joke."
"I don't think I'm very well-perceived. I don't think-"
Indeed, there have been multiple SNL sketches in which Davidson has been playing parts that
are less-than-flattering or a little too close for comfort. There's the dim bulb Chad, and
then there are all the times on Weekend Update when he's opened up about morbid and private
details of his own life. Essentially, Davidson wasn't sure whether he was really being respected
on the show, and he's even considered leaving the cast for good. As he put it,
"If I’m just fodder now though, maybe I just shouldn’t be there. They think I’m
f---ing dumb. Like, I’m literally painted out to be this big dumb idiot."
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.