Key Takeaways
- Sterling K. Brown revealed that his son was called a racial slur and spat on during a youth soccer game.
- The teen responded calmly, choosing not to retaliate and explaining his reasoning to his father afterward.
- Brown reflected on the moment as a parenting lesson, noting how his son’s restraint challenged his own instincts.
Sterling K. Brown is opening up about how his teenage son handled a painful moment on the soccer field.
During a recent roundtable for season two of his hit show “Paradise,” the actor recalled that his 14-year-old son, Andrew, was once called the N-word after being spat on during a game. PEOPLE reported that Brown contrasted his own temperament with the calm way his son handled the situation.
“My children have never been in a fight. The 14-year-old or the 9-year-old,” Brown said. “My 14-year-old was in a soccer game where a young boy spat on him, and he saw the spit and he [walked] up to the ref and he goes, ‘Ref, this dude just spat on me.’ And the ref was like, ‘I didn't see it, so I can't do anything about it.’”
Brown continued, “Then, afterwards, the young man came up to him and called him the N-word and just kind of kept it going. And my son didn't tell me until after the game, and I was like, ‘Yo, man, how come we didn't beat his a**?’ And he was like, ‘Because that wouldn't have solved anything. He already did what he was going to do. The ref didn't respond to it or whatnot. So, I didn't want to make you any more upset, which is why I didn't tell you until after the game.’”
“So, he's a more evolved person than me. I would've beat his a**!” he concluded.
A moment that shook Sterling K. Brown as a parent
Earlier this month, Brown shared another deeply personal story in an exclusive interview with REVOLT. When asked about a time he felt truly terrified, he recalled losing his 9-year-old son, Amaré, on a beach in Australia while filming Voltron.
“For about 45 minutes, we couldn’t find the boy,” he said. “I would run up and down the beach like… ‘Did he go back this way? Did he go further this way?’ I’m asking Australians if they saw a little Black boy or whatnot. Even my oldest son, who doesn't get stressed about anything, would text me and ask if we found him yet.”
His son was eventually found safe, but Brown admitted it was the last time he felt completely terrified.