Sylvester Stallone’s Most Painful Childhood Memories Were Too Much for His Memoir

Sylvester Stallone isn't looking for pity when he talks about his childhood. But some of the memories he carried into adulthood are difficult to hear.

The Rocky star recently opened up about growing up in a home where violence and a lack of affection were part of his everyday life.

Stallone says those experiences were so painful that he left some of them out of his upcoming memoir because he didn't want readers to feel sorry for him.

Sylvester Stallone's Abusive Childhood

After his parents divorced, Stallone lived with his father in Maryland, where he says he experienced physical abuse.

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“The next thing you know — wham! He had very big hands. You just learned to duck a little bit,” he recalled in an interview with The New York Times.

Stallone also remembered an incident involving a piece of nut bread that ended with his father kicking and hitting him before leaving him in the street.

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Years later, Stallone confronted his father about their relationship. “I wish you and I could be the same age for three minutes,” he told him. His father, then 68, challenged him to a fight.

Stallone's Lack of Affection

Violence wasn't the only thing missing from Stallone's childhood. He says his mother never hugged him, while affection from his father was rare.

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One memory has stayed with him. When Stallone was 9, his father put his head on his knee and rested a hand on his head after they had been working with horses.

“And I never got over that,” Stallone said.

Stallone believes his childhood made him tough, though not necessarily in a healthy way. “In the wrong way, yeah, it did. It made me very tough,” he said.

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Stallone believes his childhood made him tough, though not necessarily in a healthy way. “In the wrong way, yeah, it did. It made me very tough,” he said. But the impact went much deeper than that.

He says he didn't experience “real, real, real, real true love” until he was around 70, adding, “And that's a big pity. It really is.”

Stallone's memoir, The Steps: A Memoir, is set to be published on Sept. 29, 2026.