I was sexually abused as a child: Mike Tyson

 

The former boxer, whose controversies outside the ring are as well known as his fighting ability inside it, made the revelation while speaking to Jim Norton on Opie Radio.

In a segment where he spoke about his difficult childhood growing up in the Catskills, New York, Tyson said he was seven years old when an ‘old man’ abducted him and sexually abused him.


 ‘He bullied me, sexually abused me and stuff… snatched me off the street. I was a little kid. Never seen him again,’ he said.



Tyson escaped from his attacker, but decided not to inform the police. “It was nobody’s business to know,” he told Opie Radio. “I just lived my life.”

He's not sure whether the experience changed him or not, but the memory has remained with him,
 “I don’t always remember, maybe I do but I don’t,” he said, “I’m not embarrassed or ashamed from that perspective.”
The radio show hosts reacted by commenting that the admission was “awkward”.


The 48-year-old, who became the youngest undisputed heavyweight champion in history when he beat Tony Tucker in 1987, added he was not ‘embarrassed or ashamed’ but he didn’t know what effect the experience had on his life.

Incidents in Tyson’s personal life have made sure he’s never been far from the headlines.



Tyson’s personal life has been blighted by drama and turbulence – he has been arrested on numerous occasions, for DUI, drug possession, assault and the rape of an 18-year-old girl in 1991. In 1992 he was sentenced to six years in prison followed by four years on probation, but was released in 1995 after serving three years.



Source: The Independent