Tyler Perry Breaks Down Crying on ‘The View’ Talking About His Late Mother

Tyler Perry couldn’t hold back his tears while opening up about his late mother during Tuesday’s episode of The View. The 54-year-old filmmaker got emotional while promoting Maxine’s Baby, the new documentary about his life, which is named after his mom, Maxine Willie Perry, who died in 2009. During Perry’s discussion with The View panel, Sara Haines told him that she felt like she had met his mom after seeing the documentary.

Perry was notably choked up as he responded, “OK. Wait aminute. That took me… You met… Wow. You met my mother? You met my mother through it? Wow. Thank you. Oh my god. Wow.” He continued through tears, “To say that you met her through that, that takes me somewhere, because this woman endured so much pain, and she didn’t have some legacy but she had me. To say that I was able to introduce her to you, you got me there, man. I’m sorry. Lord have mercy. Thank you for that. I appreciate that very much. Wow.”

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Perry continued on to explain his emotional response to Haines’ comment. “I just imagine a woman who’s lived her entire life with so much pain, and she was always worried about everybody else. I watched her get sick, I watched her get cancer, I watched her have all of these things, because her intention was, ‘Are you happy? Are you OK?’” he said. “She never put herself on the list. She never thought she was important, and she never thought anybody would care. So to say that this documentary… introduces her to the world, that moves me ’cause she was very much that special to me.”

Perry shared more about the making of the documentary on CBS Mornings Tuesday, revealing that cameras had followed him for 10 years in order to make the film. “It’s not a story that I’m telling … It’s my life,” Perry said, sharing that he hopes his own struggles will inspire others. “Everything I did was about her. All the work was about her. I was never after money. It was always about making enough money to take care of her, to buy her medicine, to make sure we were never in poverty again,” Perry said of his mother. “No matter how much I had, it was never enough.”

When his mom passed away, Perry revealed that all his motivation was “gone.” He explained, “It was like a car that ran on gasoline all of a sudden say, ‘Now you need diesel.’ Now, my motivation has become watching all of the people who are coming into the studios, young, Black, everybody represented who has never gotten a chance in this business – that gives me the inspiration to keep going.” Maxine’s Baby premieres Nov. 17 on Prime Video.