Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson says he was sexually abused as a child.
The 48-year-old athlete told Opie Radio on SirusXM on Wednesday that a man “snatched” him off the street at age seven and abused him.
“[The man] bullied me and sexually abused me and stuff,” he said.
Tyson described the perpetrator as an “old man” and said it only happened “one time” while living in a rough neighborhood. He famously grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant and Brownsville neighborhoods of Brooklyn in the ‘70s.
“Never seen him again,” Tyson added.
When asked if anyone ever knew about his story, Tyson said, “It’s nobody’s business to know. Certain people know, who I told.”
He never told authorities either. “I just went through with my life,” he said.
He’s also unsure if the incident affected him. “I don’t know if I did or not,” said Tyson. “I don’t always remember. Maybe I do, but I don’t. I’m not embarrassed or ashamed of anything from that perspective.”
In 2013, Tyson played a sex abuse victim, named Reggie Rhodes, on NBC’s “Law & Order.”