Terry Crews Opens Up on Overcoming Pride, Addiction: ‘Get Real with God’
Movieguide® Contributor
Actor Terry Crews used to be full of pride, but he found freedom when he confessed his sins to God.
“Pride was my biggest issue…I remember taking my son, he was about 6 years old, to this movie, and it was the superheroes and explosions and everything, and people were dying, and he’s wincing, and I remember looking down at my son, and I said, you know, ‘Are you sure you don’t wanna go?’ He’s like ‘no, no, no, no,’” Crews recalled on an episode of PRAISE.
“He’s frightened. He had his hands all over his face. And I’m like, ‘Okay.’ So I sit for a couple more seconds and he’s still shaking with every explosion,” said Crews, who honored Movieguide by hosting the 25th Annual Faith and Values Awards Gala.
Crews took his son out to the lobby and asked him if he was okay. His son was not okay but stayed adamant that he was fine.
“I recognize that at 6 years old, there was the pride of being a man, holding on, having this dream, appearing strong when you’re not. That was me,” the AMERICA’S GOT TALENT host confessed. “Here I had a problem watching pornography, and it became this huge monster that I couldn’t control, and I would never admit it, and the whole thing was…God looking at me saying, ‘Are you okay?’”
The actor was scared to be honest about his addiction and thought his wife wouldn’t forgive him.
“I had to worship that image and [my image] ran everything. I was like, ‘I’d lose everything.’ My wife would leave. People who knew me would be ashamed. Everybody would be done. All of it would be finished,” he said.
“Finally, I went to God. Finally, I said, ‘No, I’m not okay. I am not okay,’” he said.
“And when that pride broke down with all of that melted, God was like, ‘Now [you] can change’ and let me tell you guys out there, let me tell you what was crazy after I came out with all of this stuff, I had hundreds of thousands of emails and people who had the same issue but were still afraid to really tell it like it is and I want to tell you, be very careful about that. But it’s got to be a point where you get real with God.”
He urged viewers to spend alone time with God, open up their hearts to listen to him and be completely open with him.
“Because sometimes you think you are [being honest with God] but I really wasn’t doing that until I was broken down,” he shared.
Movieguide® previously reported on Crews’ addiction:
“God literally told me and…I mean, I heard it. He said, ‘If you don’t come clean to her, I’m done with you,’” Crews said on TBN’s PRAISE, recalling when he told his wife, Rebecca, about his serious pornography addiction.
“I was like, ‘Wait a minute, God. Wait, wait, wait.’ He’s like, ‘I’ve had enough. I’ve given you grace…Every time, I let you come back, and you get a chance to clean it up, and you didn’t. If you don’t do this now, I’m gone,’” the AMERICA’S GOT TALENT actor recalled.
He immediately felt convicted and told his wife everything, including that he cheated on her.
Crews’ wife, Rebecca, forgave him and pushed him to go to therapy.
The Christian Post reported, “After years of counseling and rebuilding their marriage, the couple is today ‘stronger than ever’ and share their story to inspire and uplift others.”
“Today, I look at my husband, and I always say he’s a better man than me,” Rebecca said. “He took hold of the Word of God, and he took hold of the Scriptures, and he just ran with all his might. He said, ‘God, I don’t want to be like this anymore.’”
“And he amazes me every day,” she said. “He really is the kinder, gentler version of Terry Crews because he let God do a work in his life.”