Terry Crews reveals his abusive father is why he started working out: 'I thought I'd have to fight him'

On Running Wild With Bear Grylls Monday, actor Terry Crews revealed the extremely sad reason why he started working out so much.

Crews shared that he was only five years old, when he realized he would need strength to one day fight his abusive father. "Growing up was not a good experience. My father was very abusive, you know, he used to beat my mother. And so, it was one of those things where I knew I would have to get stronger because one day I thought I'd have to fight him. That's how it started out," revealed Crews.

The actor also shared that his comedy chops came from always wanting to make his mother laugh to offset the sadness in the house. Crews shared, "There was a lot of sadness, you know, with my father being an alcoholic, and it being so violent at home, and I remember just being able to make her laugh, and she would just crack up. I mean, her laugh just reverberated all the way through the house." Later in the show, Crews revealed that he did eventually need to stand up to his father, almost 30 years later.

"We went home for Christmas, and my father decided to beat her one more time. I mean, he had gone years without touching her, and he hit her in the mouth, knocked her tooth sideways, and I was, like, I told him, "Get the kids out the house. Take the kids, everybody leave. Just leave me and him alone,'" explained Crews, who then admitted that he beat his father.

The actor admitted, "Bear, I beat this man. I remember he was begging, begging, and all I could think of was, like, this is how my mother felt. How do you like it? And this is the thing, Bear. I thought it would feel good. And he's on the ground, bleeding, crying, and I didn't feel one bit better. It left me with nothing."

Years later, Crews went to therapy and decided to take a different approach to his relationship with his father, by forgiving him instead and thanking him for bringing him into the world.

"That was the best thing I could ever think of to tell him," said Crews as he began to get emotional and continued through tears. "We hugged, he cried. Man, all I wanted was for us to be a family and for him to love my mother as much as we loved her. And then at that moment, I knew we had transcended."