Big E opened up about a childhood shaped by fear, describing a household ruled by his stern, frightening father. The former WWE superstar, whose real name is Ettore Ewen, shared the details during an interview on Peter Rosenberg’s Validate Me show on YouTube.
A Household Walking On Eggshells
Big E traced his father’s coldness back to his own upbringing in the Caribbean.
“So, my dad is just a very scary human being. Jamaican immigrant, both my parents are immigrants from the Caribbean. He’s someone who he would talk about his own father and how his dad had another family and he would dote upon that other family. But my dad and his siblings wouldn’t be given food, proper clothes or shoes. He’d beat them all the time,” he said.
According to Big E, his father used that harsh comparison to justify his own parenting.
“My dad always thought because he doesn’t beat us all the time, because we do have shoes, because we do have a roof over our head, we have it great. I’m a great dad,” he explained.
The emotional distance left a lasting mark.
“There weren’t often we didn’t see him smile or laugh or say I love you. He’s just a very stern man. There’s a lot of anger. We all walked on eggshells in my household. He had the ability just to suck all the air out of a room. And if he was unhappy, everyone else had to be happy.”
The Generational Cycle And Therapy
Big E said the effects of that environment carried into adulthood for his entire family.
“We all had to go to therapy. We all had to work on ourselves. We all had to learn to deal with the trauma that we were dealing with as kids because so much of that stuff just continues to manifest as we get older,” he said.
Growing Up Apostolic
Big E connected much of his parents’ long marriage to their shared faith.
“They’re two people who never should have been together. But because they came up in the same religion, they thought our faith will bond us. They’ve been together for about 41 years. A lot of that has to do with the religion we came up in. I grew up apostolic,” he said.
He described a strict, all-consuming environment.
“Very strict in dress. The women in our household didn’t wear makeup, didn’t wear earrings, didn’t wear pants. We lived in church. I’m talking about four to five hours on Sunday, another two hours on Wednesdays, another two hours on Friday. When I’m home, I’m reading the Bible. My dad was a preacher.”