Star Wars star Jake Lloyd’s mother has revealed that her son is now in a mental health facility, years after he was diagnosed with schizophrenia following his role in 1999’s The Phantom Menace.
‘He didn’t tell us he heard voices at the time. But he was. When they finally told him, it totally threw him into an even worse depression,’ his mother Lisa said in a new interview with Scripps News.
Lloyd, now 35, said in a 2012 interview that the role he played when he was 10 years old made his youth hell because he was bullied by other kids. His last acting credit was in 2005, according to IMDB.com.
Three years later, Lloyd was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and anosognosia, a condition that left him in denial about his original diagnosis.
‘He didn’t tell us he heard voices at the time. But he was,” his mother said. Lisa went on to say that the condition runs on her son’s father’s side of the family, and that it would have happened regardless of the backlash he suffered for appearing in the widely panned science fiction prequel .
Jake Lloyd is seen with his mother Lisa and sister Madison, who died in 2018 at the age of 26
Lloyd gained worldwide fame for his role as Anakin Skywalker in the 1999 film
In 2015, he was sentenced to 10 months behind bars after leading South Carolina sheriff’s deputies on a high-speed chase.
In 2018, his sister, Madison, who was an extra in The Phantom Menace, died in her sleep aged 26. ‘He just couldn’t handle it. He didn’t know how to process it, Lisa said.
But things took another dark turn in March 2023.
Lisa said she was in a car with her son after picking up food at a McDonald’s.
‘He said he was going to turn the car off. And he turned off the car in the middle of the three lanes, and we were in the middle lane. There was a lot of shouting and screaming,” she said.
‘The police arrived and they asked Jake some questions. He talked to them, but none of it made sense. It was all word salad,’ said Lisa, adding that he began treatment the next day.
The Jingle All the Way star sought treatment as an outpatient as part of an 18-month program at a mental health hospital. According to his mother, Lloyd has eight months to live and is progressing well.
“He’s relating to people better and becoming a little bit more social, which is really nice,” Lisa said.
Lloyd is seen in DMV photo (left) and booking photo (right) from his 2015 arrest in South Carolina. He spent 10 months in jail without posting bail before being transferred to a psychiatric institution with a diagnosis of schizophrenia
When Lloyd was first diagnosed, Lisa said he didn’t want to take medication or see a therapist because he didn’t think there was anything wrong with him.
Contrary to speculation, Lisa also said that Lloyd remains a big fan of the franchise.
‘He loves all the new Star Wars stuff. People think Jake hates Star Wars. He loves it. Jake loved filming Star Wars. He had so much fun, she said.
For his most recent birthday, he received an Ahsoka action figure as a gift.
Lisa described protecting her son from the backlash by banning him from going online.
‘Everyone makes so much of it. And it’s quite upsetting to me because Jake was a little kid when it came out and he didn’t really feel all that because I didn’t let him be online.’
‘He was just riding his bike outside and playing with his friends. He didn’t know. He did not care.’
She said her son’s decision to leave acting had more to do with the stress of his parents’ divorce and a general lack of enthusiasm.
The Phantom Menace hits theaters in May to celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary.
Lloyd was cast in the film, one of the most eagerly anticipated of all time, at the age of six after starring in the 1996 Christmas classic Jingle All The Way opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger.
After Star Wars, his acting career ended almost overnight. His last film credit was a part in the 2001 sports drama Madison.
In a 2012 interview, Lloyd said that he had decided to quit acting due to cruel bullying at school and had destroyed all of his Star Wars memorabilia.
After moving from Hollywood to Chicago and studying film at Columbia College, Lloyd dropped out after just one semester.
Police were called to his mother’s home in Indianapolis in March 2015 for an assault complaint. She said he had argued with her and hit her, but declined to press charges, saying he was mentally ill.