Yahoo Lifestyle Tyler Perry Recalls a Teacher Killing His Pet Hamster When He Was a Child: 'No One Asked Me What Happened'
"It was a memory that I didn't even know was there until I was in this therapy session," the actor and director said
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Tyler Perry, hamsterTyler Perry is looking back at a traumatic moment from his childhood.
While being honored during the Paley Honors Fall Gala at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Wednesday, Dec. 4, the actor and director, 55, touched on his "childhood trauma" in a speech, including a time when a science teacher killed his pet hamster.
Detailing that the educator, who he did not identify by name, "hated" him in middle school, Perry said, "I didn't know why he hated me, but I was sitting in the room, and I was really leaning in and paying attention. He was like, 'Why are you looking at me that like that? You don't intimidate me.' "
Perry then recalled an instance where he was talking about his pet hamster with his classmates one day when his teacher told him, "No, Black kids don't have a hamster. You don't have a hamster," before imploring the star to bring the animal to school.
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Tyler Perry in July 2024."So I brought the hamster to school, and all the kids were fawning over how cute he was. Buddy was his name," Perry next explained during his speech.
However, the Madea star said his science teacher then asked him about dissecting the animal, which confused a young Perry. "My little innocent boy self asked, 'Will he live?' And he said, 'No,' " Perry explained of his interaction with the educator.
Detailing that his fellow classmates were "putting pressure" on him, Perry eventually gave in and handed over his pet to the teacher.
"I tried to go to the back of the room, and he's like, 'No, no, no. Stay up here.' So I watched him put his chloroform on Buddy and kill him in front of me," Perry said.
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Tyler Perry in December 2024.According to the star, he didn't remember the horrific death of his beloved pet until years later.
"It was a memory that I didn't even know was there until I was in this therapy session," Perry said. "I saw myself walking home with this empty cage and realizing that no one asked me what happened or why the cage was empty. Not one person in my life."
"So I survived that and forgot all about it, growing up at a time where there was an AIDS pandemic," Perry continued, highlighting another challenge he faced. "I would go to church every Sunday, and many of the men in my choir would be dead every Sunday."
"Or being stopped and frisked and slammed to the ground, just because I was Black and big, and the police were corrupt," he added. "But I survived, and I'm here. So I think that's enough to allow myself to be celebrated."
Looking back at his life, Perry said that the people who hurt him "did not steal my compassion" or "rob me of my heart and my care for others, and they could not grip away my ability to heal."
Further detailing that he is currently "the freest version of myself that I've ever been," Perry continued, "I have turned toward all of that pain, threw my arms wide open, embraced every bit of it, stared the shame, went down in it, and took the power out of it so that I could heal."
He then concluded his speech by saying that while he doesn't "know how much time I have left on this planet," his focus is "to love as much as I can" while he's still alive.
"I want to spread as much joy and good as I can," Perry said. "I want to make my mother proud, and I want to make my son proud of his father — something that I was never able to be of the man who raised me."
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