“Star Wars” child actor Jake Lloyd has been in a mental health facility for 10 months, his mother revealed.
Lisa Lloyd shared in a new interview that Jake, who played Anakin Skywalker in 1999’s “Episode I — The Phantom Menace,” began an inpatient program after suffering a psychotic break in March 2023 while she was driving him home from picking up food at McDonald’s.
“He said he wanted to turn the car off. And he turned the car off in the middle of the three lanes, and we were in the middle lane,” she recalled to Scripps News Monday. “There was a lot of yelling and screaming.”
Lisa said the incident caused a traffic jam, leading other drivers to call 911.
“The police got there, and they asked Jake some questions,” she remembered. “He was talking to them, but none of it made sense. It was all word salad.”
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Jake, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2008, was admitted to a hospital later that day. A few months later, he entered the rehabilitation facility for an 18-month stay.
“He’s doing much better than I expected,” his mom shared. “He is relating to people better and becoming a little bit more social, which is really nice.”
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Lisa told the outlet that she first noticed Jake “having some trouble” when he was in high school. His condition only worsened after he went to college.
“He didn’t tell us he was hearing voices at the time. But he was,” she recalled. “When they finally told him [he was schizophrenic], it totally threw him off into an even worse depression. It was really hard.”
Jake, who turned 35 on March 5, rarely took his medication because he did not believe there was anything wrong with him, according to his mother.
The situation came to a head in June 2015 when Jake was arrested for leading police on a multi-county chase before crashing his car. He spent 10 months in jail and then sought psychiatric help.
Now that Jake is back in treatment and regularly taking his meds, Lisa said he is starting to act like “the old Jake” again. He also has been watching the “Star Wars” series “Ahsoka” on Disney+.
“He loves all the new ‘Star Wars’ stuff,” she shared. “People think Jake hates ‘Star Wars.’ He loves it.”
Lisa assured fans that her son is “in a lot better place” these days, adding, “We all love Jake, and we want to be around him. I just want him to be happy.”
