Trigger warning: Mentions of domestic abuse and physical violence.
She bared these stories in a recent tell-all interview.
In the documentary ‘Can I Come In?’ by Sarah Bahbah, Filipina-American actress Liza Soberano made a special appearance where she looked back on her tumultuous times early years as a child in the United States and declared the start of her healing journey.
Foremost, the host asked at the beginning of the video, “Liza, when we first spoke, I asked you, are there parts of you [that] you feel are misunderstood by the world?“
Sarah continued that her heart was broken upon learning what the actress shared to her, which the 27-year-old star disclosed in the succeeding moments of the podcast-documentary.
Both Sarah and Liza turned emotional as the latter revisited the past, which she started by telling her roots.
Born in California, USA in 1998, the actress described her parents as being “misguided” at the time when she was born.
“And so when I was born, these two kids, they were just children. They just… I feel like I’m giving them excuses right now, and that’s what I always do… but they just… literally didn’t know what to do.”
Her parents, she remembered, were working hard to make ends meet, but her mother suffered from addiction while his dad was the “chemist,” with Liza continuing that this led to the birth of her younger brother.
“Something along the way happened. My dad had a girlfriend and a baby with that girlfriend before my mom and she had filed for a restraining order against him. My dad had visited them and a big fight ensued,” which resulted to the deportation of his father who faced multiple cases while abroad.
Liza then shared that she has loose recollection of the events that occurred back then, which she described to be coming in flashes, such as in her vulnerable moments.
Further into the documentary, Liza recalled a man her mom dated named Michael, who came in as a “really bad news” for her and her family.
She went on to reveal that they were all kidnapped by the man who trapped them inside a van for days, which led to more violent incidents that she had to endure at two years old.
When Sarah asked about whether she feels the pain of these events inside her, she went on to describe that she still feels “immense fear of bringing shame to her mother.”
After her mother was imprisoned, she and her brother ended up in foster care, with the longest one being with a woman named Melissa.
During their stay, there were numerous instances of unfair treatment towards them, with Liza painfully remembering that they even designated her as the “family dog” that would guard the house while sitting inside a big cardboard box.
The woman was also very abusive, as she went into detail, revealing that she nearly choked on meatballs after being shoved it into her mouth, and in another moment, she was also made to clean up an actual dog’s mess using her own mouth.
Liza also remembered that there were days when she was not fed and got threatened about something bad happening to his brother.
However, after months of lying about their real condition to a social worker, they eventually saw the siblings’ living conditions, as Liza had physical manifestations of abuse.
Sarah then decided to take a pause to check in on Liza midway through her the story.
After foster care, Liza and his brother, Justin, were took in by their grandparents after their father gotten wind of what happened to both of them.
Years later, they would be flying out from America to the Philippines, where they meet their dad for the first time. As a child, she recalled not having a relationship with him beyond minutes-long phone calls.
Sarah then asked Liza of her message to her younger self, where she replied: “I would want baby Liza to know that it’s not her fault. I think that one thing I realized is that I developed this habit of making myself so small out of fear of being a burden to people.“
She continued, “Because, I was afraid that if I did something that they didn’t like, or something that upset people, that they wouldn’t want me anymore or I’d become unworthy of their love. And so I tolerated and accepted a lot of disrespect and abuse out of fear of losing people that weren’t afraid of losing me.”
‘Baby Liza,’ as the older version narrated, “just needed people to keep their word.”
For the first time she felt that she was receiving love, the actress shared that it was when she began gaining fans for her projects.
In her internal world, Liza said, she felt genuine love from her former boyfriend, Enrique Gil, whom she called as her “first love.”
Additionally, her time being in their love team, known in popular culture as LizQuen, became a way for her to finally get out of abuse and violence, as she began earning for herself.
In the last chapter of the nearly hour-long video, Liza was asked to describe “freedom” with her eyes closed.
She described it as an open field that is full of life, teeming with green pastures and nature that feels open and airy and safe.
But when the actress was asked if she felt that she already had what she had just visualize, she candidly responded with: “No, I don’t feel like I have that freedom right now.“
And for her to gain that, she bluntly stated, she had to let go of caring what other people said about her and by putting herself first.
“Hope, I promise you to never let anyone make you feel inferior,” Liza told her inner self.
The 27-year-old also declared that she was already done seeking approval from her parents, fans, industry people, and people she doesn’t care about.
She also cut slices of cake that were each dedicated to the person that hurt her, with the last piece from Hope going to Liza.
“Liza, you were so hard on Hope. You didn’t love her properly. You allowed her to suffer in silence. So this is saying goodbye to old habits, toxic habits. And I hope, we grow and heal,” she expressed before smashing all the slices and wrapping up the interview.
To end, she imparted to everyone, “I just hope that everyone will be a little kinder to themselves and not tolerate bulls**t. Don’t let people hurt you. Don’t stay because you’re afraid of rocking the boat. Love yourself first and life will get so much better.”