Michelle Rodriguez Describes 'Scary' Ordeal Being 'Ripped' from Mom and Put Into Foster Care

"I'll never forget what it's like to not feel like you belong"

Michelle Rodriguez is opening up about a “very scary” experience that has stuck with her since childhood.

While speaking at the 2022 A Sense of Home Gala in Beverly Hills, the 44-year-old actress got candid about a harrowing time in foster care for three years when she was a kid. “I was about 6-years-old, San Antonio, and I remember being ripped away from my mother and being put in the system. And that s— is scary, excuse my language,” Rodriguez recalled.

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She noted how the incident made her feel isolated.

“It’s a very scary experience to lose your sense of home. I was lucky enough to be reunited with my family three years later, but I’ll never forget what it’s like to not feel like you belong,” Rodriguez said.

“It’s a very powerful and dark place that you can fall into,” the “Fast and Furious” star added. “And love is something that’s so important for every human to experience in their life, and I’m just happy to be here to support such a cause because I think what you’re doing is great.”

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This isn’t the first time Rodriguez has opened up about her troubled upbringing. Back in 2020, the “Avatar: The Way of The Water” star revealed how her Jehovah’s Witness parents reacted when she came out as bisexual on “Red Table Talk: The Estefans.”

“I like boys, I like girls, I like both,” the actress explained at the time. “I’ve always kind of gone my own little way, I’m the rogue girl in Hollywood who’s just kind of made my own path and not really cared what people think too much.”

When she was asked what her parents thought about her sexuality, Rodriguez revealed she grew up in a house of Jehovah’s Witnesses. In the past, she’s said her mother’s side of the family all practiced the faith, though she doesn’t anymore.

“Birthdays and celebrating Halloween are evil. I didn’t get to watch Disney movies until I was in my teens because of all the witchcraft,” she explained. “My family, I think, at the end of the day they set aside the differences.”

“As far as spending lots of time with that side of the family, no. I grew up knowing that you’re in this alone,” she continued. “Your mom gives birth to you, your family takes care of you, but in a sense you have to make your own in the world. For me, to have other people decide what that looks like, I could never live that life.”

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