Pete Davidson Opens Up About Heartbreaking Way He Learned About His Dad's Death On 9/11

Pete Davidson spoke about his ongoing experience with post-traumatic stress disorder, which the former “Saturday Night Live” actor said stems from the way he learned about his father’s death. 

“My dad told me he was going to pick me up from school on 9/11,” Davidson said during an appearance on actor Jon Bernthal’s “Real Ones” podcast, released on Thursday. “I got picked up by my mom ― she didn’t tell me what was going on for like three days.” 

Davidson was just 7 years old when his firefighter father, Scott, was killed in action at Ground Zero while responding to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“She kept telling me dad’s at work, coming home, whatever ― I had no idea,” said the “King of Staten Island” actor, now 29. He said that at one point, his mom told him, “‘You’re grounded, you’re not allowed to watch TV.’ And I was like ‘What? I didn’t do anything.’” 

“And then one night I turned on the TV, and I just saw my dad on TV,” he said. “And they’re like, ‘These are all the firemen that are dead,’ and all that. And then I had to talk to my mom.”

Davidson said that his mom was only 30 at the time and “nobody knew” how to deal with the news. 

“It was weird because like we didn’t know he was dead for like three weeks,” he said. 

Whether or not it was the right way to tell him about his father’s death, it still messed with him, Davidson said. In addition to PTSD, he has borderline personality disorder. Davidson said one of his symptoms is fear of abandonment, which is common for people with borderline personality disorder, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“So, you know, Dad says he’s coming to pick you up ― he doesn’t ― for life, I’m just like, ‘I don’t believe anyone,’” he said. “And I’m trying to learn how to believe people.” 

Listen to the full interview below: 

Davidson first opened up about his borderline personality disorder diagnosis in 2017 while talking about entering a rehabilitation center to deal with his mental health and undergoing therapy afterward. 

“It is working, slowly but surely,” the comedian said during an appearance on Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast. “I’ve been having a lot of problems. This whole year has been a fucking nightmare. This has been the worst year of my life, getting diagnosed with this and trying to figure out how to learn with this and live with this.”