The mother of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace star Jake Lloyd recently revealed that the actor has been struggling with mental health issues for the past several years.
He famously portrayed the young Anakin Skywalker in the first Star Wars prequel trilogy film. However, he left the spotlight soon after and he has not returned to acting since then.
Fans have been wondering what happened to Lloyd after all these years and there were speculations that the divisive reception to the film may have affected him.
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Jake Lloyd's Mother Details Actor's Mental Health Struggles Following Star Wars Role
In an interview with Scripps News, the actor's mother Lisa Lloyd offered details on Jake's mental health struggles in the years following the release of The Phantom Menace.
She revealed that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder while he was in high school.
"Jake started having some trouble in high school. He started talking about ‘realities.’ He didn't know if he was in this reality, or a different reality. I didn't really know exactly what to say to that," Lisa recalled.
"And he was like, ‘Well, I don't even know if I need to do it. I don’t know which reality I’m in,’” she said. “And I'm like, ‘Well, you're in my reality today, so you have to do your homework.’"
However, the medications didn't work. Around college time, Jake was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Unfortunately, the diagnosis threw him into depression, and quit school.
They also learned that he has anosognosia, a neurological condition that causes a patient to be unaware of, or unconsciously in denial, about their symptoms.
It led to Jake not taking medications and started using illicit drugs. He also got arrested in 2015 when he led the police on a multi-county chase before crashing his car.
After being released from prison, the struggle continued and it didn't help that Jake's sister Madison passed away.
In 2023, he suffered from a full-blown psychotic break and was admitted to a mental health rehabilitation facility. Today, he is in the 10th month of his 18-month stay.
Jake Lloyd Was Not Affected by the Star Wars Backlash
Lisa insisted that Jake was not affected by the divisive reaction of The Phantom Menace as she shielded him from the backlash and it had nothing to do with his mental health struggles.
"I protected him from the backlash. He was just riding his bike outside, playing with his friends. He didn't know. He didn't care," she said.
"Everybody makes such a big deal about that. And it's rather annoying to me because Jake was a little kid when that came out, and he didn't really feel all that stuff because I didn't let him online."
Lisa also set the record straight on the reason behind Jake's exit from Hollywood career.
"People say he quit because of Star Wars. Well, that's not true. It didn't have anything to do with Star Wars. It had more to do with our family," she explained.
"And we were going through a divorce. Things were unsettled and kind of rough. And Jake didn't seem to be having a lot of fun auditioning anymore."
Jake is also still a fan of Star Wars and continues to watch movies and TV shows such as Ahsoka. Lisa even gave him recently an Ahsoka Tano figure as a birthday present.
"He loves all the new Star Wars stuff. People think Jake hates Star Wars. He loves it," Lisa said.
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