Former Arsenal and England footballer Ian Wright has spoken with a Maudsley hospital psychiatrist about the “traumatic” experience of growing up in an abusive home.
Mr Wright, from Brockley, said in the BBC documentary Ian Wright: Home Truths that his stepfather beat his mother and tried to strangle her. She abused Mr Wright in turn, often telling him as a child that she wished she had an abortion instead of giving birth to him.
Mr Wright is now a frequent Match of the Day pundit but as a boy was made to face the wall, away from the television, when the BBC football highlights show came on on Saturday nights.
He talked to Dr Nuri Gene-Cos, a consultant psychiatrist at the Trauma and Dissociation Service at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust about his experiences.
Dr Gene-Cos said: “This is an important documentary which we hope will encourage people to acknowledge their traumatic experiences and to seek help.
“It was a privilege to be part of a very informative, insightful and heart-felt programme. It deals with issues of childhood trauma, in its impact in adult life as well as with how perpetrators can be helped.
“Meeting Ian was a great experience, he is a courageous and authentic person. I was not a football fan before meeting him but now I see him everywhere!”
In the programme Mr Wright visits schools to see how ways of tackling the impact of abusive homes on children have changed since he grew up in the 1970s. He also visits a charity that works with men who have committed abuse or are at risk of becoming abusive.
Watch the documentary here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vt7g