Former Disney star Cole Sprouse has accused his estranged mother of narcissism, saying that she forced him and his twin brother Dylan into acting.
The pair were 12 years old when they landed career-defining roles in the Disney series "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody." They also took joint roles in Adam Sandler's "Big Daddy," "That ’70s Show," and "Friends." However, during an appearance on Steven Bartlett's "Diary Of A CEO," the 30-year-old actor stated that his mother Melanie pushed them into acting for her own gain.
"I think she found a tremendous sense of self-identity through motherhood, and tried to turn it into a profitable business at the same time, which for identical twin boys going into acting is an economic loophole — there are labor laws that can be incredibly profitable, so that's what she did," he said, according to the Daily Mail.
"It made a lot of financial sense for her to push us into acting," he added. "I think it satisfied some sort of narcissism she probably had in order to be recognized as some sort of artistic success."
Sprouse described his mother as "a wonderful painter" who "always wanted some sort of artistic recognition and validation.
"But as time went on I think the entertainment industry just kind of broke her."
Sprouse has been vocal about his fractured relationship with his mother, whom he has since been estranged. Most recently, he claimed his father Matthew was granted sole custody when court officials were forced to step in after Melanie was deemed unfit as a parent.
"This industry encourages the worst qualities of you as a person ... selfishness, greed," he said, according to the Daily Mail. "A lot of these things that we have come to know as cardinal sins. It's one of those things that encouraged a kind of selfishness that's directly opposed to the fundamental idea of motherhood."
Sprouse added that, as he and his brother grew older, "the court had to step in" and send them to their father, "who's an incredible guy."
"But that selfishness is something the legal system also observed, and said that she was unfit, and I think as I have aged I've looked back on a lot of circumstances of that entire environment and I see a person that grapples with mental illness, drug abuse, but primarily narcissism," he continued. "A wicked narcissism. The inability to perceive anything out of your own perspective, and that just doesn't work with being a mother, with being a family in general."
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.