Yahoo Lifestyle Tyler Perry reveals he went to therapy after Joy Behar recommended it to him on “The View”: 'You were right'
"I really took your advice," the "Six Triple Eight" director told Behar.
Tyler Perry is revealing how a question from Joy Behar changed his life for the better.
During Tuesday’s episode of The View, the Six Triple Eight co-writer and director revealed that he took Behar’s advice that she imparted upon him the last time he visited the show and began therapy for the first time in his life.
“The last time you were here, you were talking about your documentary [Maxine's Baby: The Tyler Perry Story] and you bring out in the documentary the traumatic childhood that you had and I said to you, ‘Have you gone to therapy?’ Because that seems to be my solution to emotional issues and I always think it works,” Behar explained. “It worked for me, believe it or not. So?”
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And, as it turns out, Perry had a positive update for her. “I really took your advice. I went to therapy for the first time at 54 last year,” he said, leading Behar to respond, “Good for you.”
As a result, Perry explained that he’s been able to “really get in touch” with himself and his past.
“I’m living the freest, best part of my life,” he said. “I’d been bound by so much trauma, so much pain, so much heartache and heartbreak and, you were right, Joy. You were completely right and I would recommend it to anyone — the right therapist. Because the wrong ones will make you crazy as hell. But the right therapist, yeah, for sure.”
Behar explained that therapy can be beneficial because it’s difficult to truly heal from issues without having the space to actually talk about them.
“Or even understand it,” Perry added. “I knew all the trauma and I had all the bells and tools to understand it, ‘cause as a writer I would always chase down the motivations of my characters and I used that for myself. But I didn’t have the understanding of, now I have the information, now what do you do with it? So getting the information was so powerful.”
ABC
Tyler Perry on 'The View'Perry last visited The View in November 2023, when he had to tearfully pause his conversation with the panelists after Sara Haines gave a moving tribute to his mother, Maxine, on the show. "I need to get myself together," he said at the time. "You really got me."
He came prepared when he reunited with the hosts on Tuesday, making sure to poke fun at the teary-eyed moment right out of the gate. “Don’t start with me!” He joked as he sat down, pointing at Haines. “Last time I was here, she had me crying. So don’t start with me!”
In response, a laughing Haines raised a finger in the air and replied, “I’m not starting with you!”
The View airs weekdays at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. PT on ABC.
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