Tyler Perry reveals how he forgave his alcoholic father and overcame his traumatic childhood

Tyler Perry has revealed the dark details of his abusive childhood at the hands of his father which he says made him the successful writer, actor and producer that he is today.    

‘I don’t think I ever felt safe or protected as a child,’ Perry told PEOPLE Magazine, also explaining how he was ‘raped’ as a child by three male and female family acquaintances. 

The 50-year-old star revealed how his functioning alcoholic father Emmitt Perry would beat him so severely that the skin was once ripped off is back with a vacuum cord. 

But it was the abuse that forced him to ‘escape and be somewhere else’ in his own head, where he created his characters that propelled his billionaire dollar movie empire.  

‘I don’t think I ever felt safe or protected as a child,’ Perry told PEOPLE Magazine

Perry said that he was raped by male and female family acquaintances three times by the age of 10

The actor, director and producer revealed that it took ‘a tremendous amount of prayer’ to forgive his father Emmitt (pictured) 

Raised in New Orleans, Perry described the close bond he and his late mother Maxine had and the impact she made on him by bringing him to church.  

‘I’m so grateful for that,’ he said. ‘If I wouldn’t have had that, I don’t know where I’d be. That was our North Star, the Bible, faith, church.’

It was Maxine, who passed away in 2009, that would inspire his Madea character. 

‘Sometimes I wake up from crying because I miss her so much,’ he said. 

Though he was loved by his mother, Perry said she could not protect him from the adults that abused him.

‘It was rape,’ he said of being sexually abused by three family acquaintances 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.’ 

He said that at the time he believed, ‘Boys don’t cry, shut up and move on.’ 

Perry’s relationship with his father remained strained his entire life, and at age 41, he learned that Emmitt was not actually his biologically father. 

He said that growing up: ‘There was always tension, there was always hostility. You never knew which way the wind was going to blow with my father.’ 

Perry described the close bond he and his late mother Maxine had and how impact it was for her to take him to church. Maxine passed away in 2009 (pictured together in 2006)

The 50-year-old said it was the abuse that forced him to ‘escape and be somewhere else’ in his own head to create characters and stories

Somehow he found the strength to forgive.  

‘[It took] a tremendous amount of prayer,’ Perry said. ‘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.’ 

Perry supports Emmitt financially though they do not have a relationship outside of monetary payment. 

He said he now feels a sense of relief. 

‘I’m telling you, the shift and forgiveness in me left me raw because it was a weight inside,’ he said. ‘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.’ 

That shift appears to be working for Perry, who just this week was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.   

Perry was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this week