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Game Of Thrones star Maisie Williams opens up about traumatic childhood relationship with father

Home> Celebrity

Published 11:18 27 Sep 2022 GMT+1

Game Of Thrones star Maisie Williams opens up about traumatic childhood relationship with father

Maisie, 25, shared details about her childhood and her relationship with her father in a new interview.

Gregory Robinson

Gregory Robinson

Maisie Williams has shared details about her ‘traumatic’ childhood relationship with her father.

The 25-year-old opened up about her difficult early years in an interview with Steven Bartlett for his Diary of a CEO podcast.

Maisie rose to international fame after landing the part as Arya Stark in Game of Thrones aged 12, a role she played between 2011 and 2019.

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She shared how her childhood has had a lasting effect on her mental health, including struggling to sleep.

“Well, I, as a young child before the age of, like, eight, had a traumatic relationship with my dad,” she shared. “And I don’t want to go into it too much because it affects my siblings and my whole family.

Maisie opened up about her childhood in the interview.
Diary of a CEO

“But, like, that really consumed a lot of my childhood. Ever since I can remember, I’ve really struggled sleeping. And I think a lot of the traumatic things that were happening, I didn’t realise that they were wrong.”

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Maisie said the situation with her father ‘had met its peak’ when she was eight and a teacher at her school raised her concerns in the staff room with her.

Maisie said: “And she was saying, like, ‘What’s wrong,’ you know, like, what’s happened? Are you hungry?’ ... ‘Did you eat breakfast?’ I said, ‘No.’ And she said, ‘Oh, why not?’ And I said, ‘We just don’t have any breakfast.’ And then she says, you know, ‘Do you normally have breakfast?’”

Maisie Williams played Arya Stark in Game of Thrones.
HBO

“I was indoctrinated in a way,” she said, reflecting on her childhood. “I think that’s why I’m obsessed with cults. Because I’m, like, I get it. I get it. I was in a child cult.”

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Maisie said she was glad she no longer had to see her dad but admitted to feeling conflicted about the situation.

“You can feel so liberated and free and at the same time, just like that impending doom is kind of still there,” she revealed.

The Pistol actor has been open about her mental health and the effect of becoming famous at an early age had on her.

In the interview she shared that she battled identity issues, anxiety and mental health struggles as a child and a young adult but she has been reflecting on her past experiences.

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Maisie Williams shared how her childhood experiences still affect her.
Hulu/FX

“To be honest, I have been thinking about this a lot,” she shared with Steven. “It’s not because of me that these bad things happened when I was a child.

“I thought it was. I thought there was something inherently wrong with me, that it could be anyone experiencing the pain.

“It made me more interested in the guy. What could make you mistreat your own children? What happened to you as a kid? Did you pull the legs off bugs? Did you learn all this?”

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“That’s how I feel about him now. He would make a fascinating documentary.”

If you've been affected by any of the issues discussed in this article, help is available through Mind

Featured Image Credit: Image Press Agency/Alamy Stock Photo/Diary Of A CEO podcast

Topics: Celebrity, News

Gregory Robinson
Gregory Robinson

Gregory is a journalist working for Tyla. After graduating with a master's degree in journalism, he has worked for both print and online publications and is particularly interested in TV, (pop) music and lifestyle. He loves Madonna, teen dramas from the '90s and prefers tea over coffee.

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