He might be cinema’s consummate tough guy, but at 80 years old, Sylvester Stallone is ready to be vulnerable.
In an episode of The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast released on September 26, the “Rocky” star reflected on aging, parenting, anxiety, and the regrets he carries into his 80s.
Looking back on his life, Stallone said he didn’t discover “real, true love” until he was 70.
“To really have unequivocally true love, that total abandonment, that reckless love that you would jump into a volcano for someone, that came late,” he said, which he called “a big pity.” He continued, “I was so consumed with not being another bum from the neighborhood.”
Stallone has been married to his third wife, Jennifer Flavin, since 1997, and the two share three daughters. They briefly separated in 2022, but reconciled.
“I built a castle with thousands of stones made of regrets,” he said. “I’m trying to make up for it in my own petty way, and I don’t know if there’s enough time. There is not enough time. What I have to do is just focus on the ones who really need me and the ones who I want to go on and have their own life and legacy.”
Since insurance companies put life expectancy at 78, Stallone said he’s “two years into borrowed time.”
“You’re never too old to be in love, never too old to dance with the great memories that you’ve had, and not wallow in the worst swamp of all, which is the swamp of loneliness. That is truly premature burial,” he said.
Though he said he’s still in “panic mode” about his age.
‘I really wasn’t a very good parent’
After a troubled upbringing — his mother abandoned him, and his father was physically abusive — Stallone didn’t have the easiest time being a dad, either.
“I really wasn’t a very good parent. My wife, Jennifer, is the greatest woman ever. And she is the most giving,” he said. “I don’t have that gear of just abandonment of your own personal self for someone else. She raised my daughters that way.”
Stallone said his career also came first during his first marriage to Sasha Czack, from 1974 to 1985. They had two sons, Sage and Seargeoh.
Sage died in 2012 due to an undiagnosed heart condition at 36.
About a week after his death, a “wail” came out of Stallone that was “just pain and grief and guilt,” he said.
“You don’t get over that.”
Stallone also opened up about his anxiety, but said he doesn’t believe in therapy
Despite decades of panic attacks, Stallone doesn’t go to therapy.
The “Rambo” actor said he had his first panic attack at 36, and they returned “again and again and again,” before a brief respite for five years.
“Then it always seems to happen, like, just as you’re getting ready to go on the ‘Today’ show — boom! ‘Anybody got a Xanax?’ It’s too late,” he shared.
“All that anxiety everyone has, it’s coming from something that’s so deep-rooted,” he said. “Our emotions are always on the verge of eruption.”
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