FORMER Premier League star Jermaine Pennant has opened up on how his traumatic childhood led to him binge drinking.
The 40-year-old, who played for Arsenal and Liverpool, revealed back in January how he lost his career earnings of over £10million — and got in such a mess he even forgot he owned a house.
Pennant, who burst onto the scene at 15 with Notts County, also landed himself in trouble throughout his career, including a stint behind bars, and has admitted to binge-drinking and addictions while battling depression.
And after Everton’s Dele Alli bravely opened up about his own harrowing childhood trauma, Pennant has appeared on talkSPORT to discuss his own problematic past.
The ex-Birmingham and Stoke winger revealed how he was abandoned by his parents and called “Cornflake Kid” by bullies at school.
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He then went on to say: “I was abandoned by my mother when I was three, my father had me on weekends and when he took me back and my mum was never there.
“My father raised me to the best of his abilities and I was around six or seven, he then neglected me.
“Then my dad got into drugs, people coming in an out of the house, I'd say he was an addict. So I had no mum, no father, surrounded by drugs, guns and crime.”
Pennant, who has been diagnosed with ADHD and has since turned his life around after undergoing therapy, then explained how that childhood trauma followed him throughout his career.
He added: “I couldn't handle certain situations.
“When I signed for Liverpool, in my second year I spoke to my agent. Obviously as a Liverpool fan from a kid, it was a dream come true. But I had a conversation where I said, 'I don't know why I'm unhappy, I don't understand it'.
“I've got everything I want, an amazing house, play for the club I've dreamed about as a little kid but I was depressed. Because I had so much hurt and trauma as a child that I never got over.
“It was causing me so much pain and when things weren't going great on the pitch, I'd unleash it in any way possible.
“I'd want to go out, to be around people, I'd try anything as pain relief, to get drunk, binge drink, to numb the pain.”
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