Sylvester Stallone, 80, reveals why he did not go to his mother's funeral: “Some people should not have children”

S ylvester Stallone decided to look back and tell some of the most difficult chapters of his life. At 80 years old and with the publication of The Steps, his new memoir, the Rocky star speaks of a complicated childhood, the wounds he carried for decades, and a family relationship that was far from the image he would later project in Hollywood.

One of the most striking revelations has to do with his mother, Jackie Stallone . The actor said he was playing golf when he received the news of her death in 2020 and acknowledged that he did not attend her funeral . Behind that decision was a relationship marked for decades by an enormous emotional distance.

The difficult relationship Sylvester Stallone had with his mother

Stallone has spoken bluntly about the lack of affection he felt during his childhood. Remembering Jackie, a woman also known for her eccentric personality and her work related to astrology, he stated that he never received from her the affection he expected from a mother.

“I was playing golf when someone called me and said to me, ‘Your mother has died’”

Reflecting on his past, he said: “She never hugged me.” Stallone grew up with the feeling that his mother simply was not prepared to take on that role, while his relationship with his father, Frank Stallone Sr ., was also marked by distance and difficult episodes.

That childhood, as he now explains, ended up influencing the way he faced much of his adult life. For years he built a personality based on enduring, competing, and proving that he could withstand anything, a kind of armor that he also transferred to characters such as Rocky Balboa .

Success finally came after years of hardship and rejection in New York. Rocky, written by and starring Stallone, transformed his career and made him one of the most recognizable figures in cinema, but it did not necessarily resolve the conflicts he had been carrying long before achieving fame.

The death of his son Sage, another wound that Stallone carries

Decades later, Stallone had to face a completely different loss. His eldest son, Sage Stallone, died in 2012 at the age of 36 from heart disease. The actor has acknowledged that that death continues to be one of the most painful episodes of his life.

The loss also forced him to look at his own experience as a father. Stallone admits that for much of his career he was focused almost exclusively on making his way and staying in Hollywood, something he began to view from a different perspective over the years.

His story will make it to the big screen with I Play Rocky

Stallone's memoir is also arriving at a particularly symbolic moment in his career. Fifty years after the release of Rocky , his story behind that film will be brought to the big screen in I Play Rocky , the biopic directed by Peter Farrelly that will arrive in theaters on November 6, 2026.

The film stars Anthony Ippolito , who plays a young Stallone during the years when he was trying to make his way in Hollywood and refused to part with the Rocky script unless the producers agreed to let him play Rocky Balboa himself. Stallone was not directly involved in the production and acknowledged that he initially had mixed feelings about the idea of his life making it to the big screen while he was still able to tell it.

“I’m not dead yet” , Stallone joked when speaking about the project in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning. However, his reaction changed after seeing Ippolito’s work and noticing the actor’s resemblance to his younger self. The film already had its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival before its commercial release

Stallone continues working and starring in Tulsa King , but he says that his relationship with time has changed: after decades trying to prove that he could withstand any blow , he now seems more willing to talk about those he never managed to leave completely behind.