Netflix star Terrell Carter has told the heartbreaking story of how he was born to an 11-year-old amputee child with the ‘mental capacity of a third grader’.
His mother, who has not been named, could barely speak and was raped by a 26-year-old man who was a family member through marriage. Both his mother and father have since passed away.
Terrell’s family were unaware that his mother was pregnant until she was full-term and believed her weight gain was down to a tumour and the medication she was on.
It was also believed she wouldn’t be able to get pregnant because her organs were not fully developed.
Singer and actor Terrell, 50 is best known for starring in Tyler Perry’s Netflix show, Beauty In Black as Varney and Empire as attorney Warren Hall and he has also appeared in the 2005 movie Diary Of A Mad Black Woman.
Netflix star Terrell Carter has told the heartbreaking story of how he was born to an 11-year-old amputee with the ‘mental capacity of a third grader’ she was raped by a relative
Singer and actor Terrell, 50 stars in Tyler Perry ‘s Netflix show, Beauty In Black as Varney, (pictured) and Empire as attorney Warren Hall and has also appeared in the 2005 movie Diary Of A Mad Black Woman
Terrell admits that being his father’s only son and not being claimed as his son for years really hurt him but he has since sought therapy in order to become the man he is today
He previously wrote a book called Problem Child and details the trauma and challenges of his experience in a new interiew with the QL show podcast.
Terrell said: ‘My mum was 11-years old. [She had a life expectancy of 15 years.]
She had one leg amputated at birth. She had so many health problems growing up and she was molested by my dad who was from the same family. He was 26.
‘I was just this problem child who was this family secret. I grew up under a cloud of secrecy because my dad didn’t want anyone to know.
‘My grandmother and everyone at the time, were more concerned with the structure and the stability that they had, so they didn’t want that to be disrupted.
‘Meanwhile, you had my mum who was [disabled]. She could barely speak. When I was five years old, I realised that my mum and I were different. I remember thinking, she’s not like me.
‘We had an argument about some crayons and I remember thinking in that moment, that she was like a child with the language she used and I realised I had already surpassed her mentally.
‘For my mum to have to go through all that she went through at such a young age and not be able to speak, I now have the voice that she didn’t have.’
Asked whether he felt different to his peers while growing up, Terrell said: ‘Absolutely… my family were the worst of the worst if you were to look at them.
‘I remember thinking when I was eight years old, how am I nothing like these people?’
‘This was a story that I didn’t want anybody to know. Who wants to tell people their mother was molested and they are a child of incest?
‘But especially us as black families, growing up with so much trauma… I told my story in private to some friends and I saw how it opened the door for them to be released to tell their stories. I was looking to be an example.’
Terrell says he only met his guitar-playing army father once or twice but it was clear he was his dad’s son because they looked so alike, (pictured in Empire)
Terrell says he only met his guitar-playing army father once or twice but it was clear he was his dad’s son because they looked so alike.
He became aware of his family history when he was aged eight through his aunt who would visit and say: ‘we all know that’s his son’ but no one would confirm it because they didn’t want the man in question to go to jail.
Terrell has said: ‘I was born into this umbrella of an insane family.
‘Everybody knew and they were all living under an umbrella of dysfunction and some of the worst people and situations you could imagine.’
And because of the physical similarities with his father, Terrell admits he questioned for years, what else was going to rear its head – would he be like him in other ways too?
He admits that being his father’s only son and not being claimed as his son for years really hurt him but he has since sought therapy in order to become the man he is today.
Talking about how his life was impacted, he said: ‘I didn’t know what love was. I didn’t know how to have real relationships with anyone.
‘Even when they went well, I realised I was so out of touch because… how do you know what love feels like?’
