Mike Tyson Reveals Mom Gave Him Drugs at 10-Years-Old

Mike Tyson has never been shy about the darkness that shaped him, but his latest confession may be one of his most disturbing yet.

The former heavyweight champion, now 60, revealed that his first exposure to alcohol and marijuana came when he was just a little boy — and, according to Tyson, the person who introduced him to both was his own mother.

Speaking on The Joe Rogan Experience, Tyson said his mother, Lorna Tyson, struggled with alcoholism and gave him liquor and marijuana when he was around 9 or 10 years old because she believed it might help him sleep.

“When you’re a kid your mother gives you liquor and marijuana for you to think that you’re going to go to sleep or something,” Tyson told Rogan.

The boxing icon then added bluntly: “My mother was an alcoholic. Liquor and marijuana to see if you go to sleep.”

Rogan pressed Tyson on how young he was when he first tried drugs, and the answer stunned him.

“Kid. 10 years old, 9 years old,” Tyson said. “Smoking and drinking.”

The shocking admission painted a grim picture of Tyson’s childhood in Brooklyn, where the future champion grew up surrounded by poverty, instability and street violence long before he became one of the most feared athletes on the planet.

But Tyson’s early exposure to substances did not stop with booze and marijuana.

He told Rogan that as he got older, he began experimenting with more drugs.

“Then as I got older, I tried acid,” Tyson said.

When Rogan asked how old he was at the time, Tyson replied: “Probably 11.”

The confession is the latest chapter in Tyson’s long and painful public reckoning with the trauma of his youth. Long before he became “Iron Mike,” the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history, Tyson was a troubled kid growing up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where crime and survival were part of daily life.

Tyson has often described his childhood as chaotic and frightening. He was frequently in trouble, bullied as a child and pulled into the streets at an early age. By the time he was a teenager, he had already been arrested multiple times.

His mother died when Tyson was just 16 years old, leaving him with complicated grief and deep emotional scars that he has spent decades trying to understand.

Despite the pain, Tyson has credited legendary boxing trainer Cus D’Amato with saving his life and giving him the structure he never had at home. D’Amato became Tyson’s legal guardian and mentor, molding the troubled teenager into a disciplined fighter with a terrifying style and unmatched intensity in the ring.

Under D’Amato’s guidance, Tyson transformed from a lost Brooklyn kid into a boxing phenomenon. In 1986, at just 20 years old, he became the youngest heavyweight champion in history, launching one of the most explosive careers the sport has ever seen.

But behind the fame, money and knockouts, Tyson’s personal demons never disappeared.

Over the years, he has spoken openly about addiction, rage, depression and the emotional wreckage that followed him into adulthood. His rise was legendary, but his downfall played out just as publicly, with legal troubles, substance abuse, financial collapse and personal turmoil turning him into one of the most complicated figures in sports history.

In recent years, Tyson has taken on a more reflective tone, often speaking about the damage caused by childhood trauma and the long road to healing.

He has also credited cannabis with helping him manage his pain, calm his mind and move away from harder substances. Tyson has become a major advocate for marijuana, even building a cannabis business as part of his post-boxing career.

The former champ has said he now views much of his past through the lens of survival rather than shame. While his reputation was once built on fear, intimidation and destruction, today Tyson often speaks like a man trying to make peace with the frightened child he once was.

His latest remarks about being given liquor and marijuana before he was even a teenager are likely to shock fans, but they also help explain the harsh world that shaped one of boxing’s most ferocious champions.

For Tyson, the story of his life has never been just about what happened in the ring.

It has also been about what happened long before the lights, the crowds and the championship belts — when a little boy in Brooklyn was already being handed substances no child should ever touch.