Sylvester Stallone Recalls Verbal and Physical Abuse From His Father, Frank Stallone Sr.

Sylvester Stallone is not hiding anything when it comes to his past and career, including his troublesome relationship with his father. According to PEOPLE, Netflix’s Sly details how Stallone’s father would attack him during polo matches.

Stallone is now 77 but recounts in the documentary all of the physical and verbal abuse his father, Frank Stallone Sr., would lay on him. “I was raised by a very physical father, so I was no stranger to serious pain,” Stallone reveals in the documentary.

Young Sly Stallone was raised in rural Maryland with his father after his divorce from Jackie Stallone, mother to Sly and his brother Frank Stallone Jr. While growing up, Sly Stallone became a top nationally-ranked polo player at age 13. But his father apparently would erupt at any time, even during a polo match.

“I was going for a nearside backhand, and I didn’t do anything wrong – he goes, ‘You’re pulling too hard on the horse!’” Stallone recalls in the documentary. “I said, ‘I know what I’m doing.’ He goes, ‘You don’t!’ Screaming from the stands. I pulled the horse up to get ready for another throw, and [Frank] comes out of the stands, grabs me by the throat, throws me on the ground, takes the horse, and walks off the field.”

“I laid there and I went, ‘I never want to see a horse again in my whole life,’” Stallone added. He did reveal that he later returned to the sport around age 40, after reaching the heights of fame with Rambo and Rocky. Despite all the success and investing in the best horses and players, to play with his father, things still went south.

“I’m gonna field my father a super team with ten-goal players. And we’ll play against each other in the Wellington, the number one field in the world,” Stallone remembers. “[Frank] spears me in the back. Hit me so hard, I went down… The horse walked right over, I don’t know how it didn’t kill me.”

His father just rode away. It was the straw that broke the horse’s back you could say, which is incorrect but it feels silly to mention camels in this story. Stallone would give up the horses and polo for good.

“I never played polo again from that moment on. I sold everything, I sold every horse, the ranch, the truck, and that was the end,” Stallone said. Footage from a press conference after the game also shows how sour he was at the moment. “If you notice, the first cheap shot – and only cheap shot in the game – was administered from my father to his son.”

In a rich moment, Stallone later visits his father on his deathbed in 2011, telling the story about his final chat with the man. “He goes, ‘You know, Sly… you should learn to love and forgive people.’ I said, ‘Really! That just come to you now as the f–ing angels are about to whisper in your ear?… Like you just had an epiphany on the way out?’ He goes, ‘Yeah, I did.’”