Tyrese Gibson has opened up about the vulnerable time in his life when he reacted badly to depression medication, resulting in some of the behavior we have seen from him in the past few years.
While speaking to Sway’s Universe to promote the upcoming film Fast X, the actor talked about the time in 2017 when he went on Instagram to declare that Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith had given him $5 million to help he and his family during his custody battle with Norma Mitchell, his ex-wife. At the time, he said, according to Complex, “My wife kept the news away from me ’cause I’ve been on with lawyers all day, but our family and our sister Jada Pinkett-Smith and my brother Will Smith just sent us 5 million dollars to help keep us afloat…The Smiths and their whole family has always shown up for The Gibson’s [sic]. Uncle Will you’re an uncle for real.”
During the Sway’s Universe appearance, Gibson revealed that never happened, saying, “Will Smith is gonna give me $5 million? I never even talked to Will Smith. I was out of my mind.”
He said he wrote that while he was taking depression medication Rexulti, which he was prescribed after losing custody of his daughter Shayla to Mitchell.
“I travel and I move all the time. I’m used to being away from my baby,” he continued. “But to take my baby away for 100 days? Oh, I was f***ing miserable. So then the psychiatrist says, ‘Here’s some psych meds that’ll help stabilize your mood, because you barely sleep, you’re stressed the f**k out, and your first-born was taken away from you…They gave me these psych meds called Rexulti. F***ed me up.”
He also said that another video made during that time, an Instagram video of him crying about losing Shayla for 100 days, was filmed and uploaded by him while on Rexulti. Gibson was monitored for 100 days after Mitchell accused him of physically abusing his daughter. Gibson denied the claims and the case was eventually dropped with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services deciding not to seek any criminal charges, according to People.
He said, “I filmed the video, uploaded the video and the video was on the internet for three full months before the psych meds was finally out of my system. So imagine being the butt of every joke, memes, all your homies, friends, people that ain’t your friends, clowning…your psych med meltdown as the butt of their jokes, and guess what? because I’m a bit of a troll myself, I probably would have been clowing the motherf***er too.”
“I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I’ve never been high in my life,” he continued. “…I don’t drink because everything about drugs and alcohol f****d my life up throughout my childhood. Everything was out of control, which made me a control freak…For someone who doesn’t use drugs, you put some s**t like Rexulti in my system, it’s gonna have the worst adverse effects ever. “
He also mentioned how he still hasn’t recovered from the videos he’s uploaded, which also includes announcing his then-wife Samantha Lee’s pregnancy when she wasn’t actually pregnant, or calling the Smith family during his high.
Watch the full interview below (discussion about Rexulti starts at the 28-minute mark).
