VIDEOSGay Bashing & Deep Depression — Jonathan Lipnicki Reveals His Tortured Childhood After 'Jerry Maguire'
March 16 2017, Updated 3:27 p.m. ET
Six-year-old Johnathan Lipnicki stole hearts in 1996 as the precocious child star Jerry Maguire, but 20 years later, he is speaking out, revealing that his life after the spotlight was a difficult one.
“I was made to feel like garbage every day of middle school to the point where I had a panic attack every night before school, because I wondered how I would get through the day,” Jonathan told TooFab. “It was humiliating.”
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He was tortured on a daily basis suffering emotionally and physically, with eczema-riddled hands he rubbed together endlessly out of nervousness. "I was told I was a has-been and would never book a job again," he explained. "I didn’t go a day without being called some form of gay slur, or a hateful slur pretty much every day of middle school."
Jonathan, who still works in show business today, sought professional help to deal with the pressure and bullying. "I've been in treatment for a very long time because I had a very serious problem with anxiety and depression," Lipnicki told TooFab. "I felt like I didn't know how my life was going to end up. It was the lowest point of my life."
