“Abuse, Mental Illness and Trouble with the Law”: The Tragic Life of a Star Wars Episode I Child Star

Fame can come at a high price, especially for those who gain it from a young age. That’s exactly what happened to Jake Lloyd, the child star who played Anakin Skywalker in ‘Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace’ (1999).

Fans of the franchise praised the little actor’s skills in front of the camera, especially those who already knew him from his previous roles in films such as ‘Father in Trouble’ (1997) and ‘Apollo 11’ (1996).

Although global recognition and public exposure were not something positive for Jake himself, so much so that after participating in ‘Star Wars’ he almost completely withdrew from show business, as he studied film and psychology at Columbia University. , Chicago.

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The scary story of Jake Lloyd after Star Wars

As the Mirror reports, Jake Lloyd admitted in interviews that he was bullied as a child, which turned his school life into a nightmare.

“The other kids were very mean to me. They would unleash a lightsaber whenever they saw me. He was totally crazy,” the tax collector would indicate.

Years later, the former child star was diagnosed with schizophrenia, along with anosognosia, a symptom that prevents a thorough study of his cognitive states, as his mother Lisa told Geek News Now.

As a result of these mental illnesses, Jake has verbally abusive and violent attitudes, which is why he even attacked his mother in 2015.

As NBC News reported, a year later he was jailed for 10 months and then transferred to a psychiatric facility on charges of reckless driving, driving without a license and failure to stop when called to the police.

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“This only adds to the struggle she is facing, which has been very difficult following the tragic loss of her younger sister, Madison,” her mother said of the 26-year-old’s sudden death in 2018.

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