The Devastating Truth About Jared Leto's Childhood

Born in Louisiana, Jared Leto was raised by a single mother with limited means who welcomed two children when she was still a teenager. But Constance Leto showered Jared and Shannon Leto with plenty of life opportunities. "[I] moved around a lot, lived all over the place," he told The Telegraph in 2013. The family spent time in all corners of the country and beyond, living from Wyoming to South America. "I haven't been to, um, where haven't I been? I mean as far as states ... I've almost been to every state," he said.

Constance led a bohemian lifestyle, often living in hippie communities with her boys in tow. With no shortage of creative friends around, Constance always ensured Jared and Shannon had access to musical instruments and allowed their imaginations to run wild. "Just having the art communal hippie experience as a child, there wasn't a clear line that was drawn," he previously said, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Jared, who is not only an Oscar-winning actor but also the frontman of the rock band 30 Seconds to Mars, which he co-founded with Shannon, attributes his success to Constance. "She encouraged her kids to be creative and work hard and do something special," Jared said in his Oscar acceptance speech in 2014, using the opportunity to publicly acknowledge her. "I just want to say I love you, Mom. Thank you for teaching me to dream," he said. While great for his future career, Jared's unique childhood experience also came with destructive consequences.

A lot of high schoolers get into sports, but Jared Leto had no time for it. "I was too busy taking drugs," he told Rolling Stone in 2016. "Which was kind of a sport." Leto found himself in that world almost with no effort. "I grew up in an environment where there were drugs around," he said on "The Zane Lowe Show" in September. "I mean, I knew what the smell of weed is as a very, very young kid." Leto could recognize when people were smoking marijuana since he was in fourth grade, an age when his friend had no idea what marijuana even was.

That exposure never scared Leto. To the contrary, it intrigued him. "I was always interested in drugs," he told Lowe. "I was always interested in an experience. I was always interested in taking some risk." So, he experimented. He did his fair share of drugs until it became a problem. "I took it for a ride, and then it took me for a ride, for sure," he said. But Leto was lucky. He realized in time that he had the potential to make something of himself and that the road toward the goal was incompatible with that lifestyle.

Leto decided to get sober, quitting all drugs and even alcohol completely. "Some drugs are incredible, but the risk versus reward is out of line. I just saw too many examples of what not to do," he told Rolling Stone. 

If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).

Jared Leto's childhood was hard from the get-go. He was barely out of infancy when his father, Anthony Bryant, left the family. The day he left marks the only memory Leto has of him. "He just flicked a cigarette and said 'I'll see you kid, just going to the store to get a carton of milk,' and never came back," the "Requiem for a Dream" actor told a crowd at the Cannes Lions festival in 2014, according to the Daily Mail. 

Bryant left the family in precarious conditions, leaving Constance Leto to depend on food stamps to provide for their young sons with the help of her parents. When Jared was 8, Bryant died by suicide. At that point, Constance had settled the family in Virginia, where she married Carl Leto, who is said to have adopted the boys, the Daily Mail reported in 2014. But Constance's marriage to Carl was short-lived, lasting just two years. According to the 2016 Rolling Stone article, Jared avoids speaking of that time.

Amid the instability of his childhood, Jared found the support he needed in his mother and older brother, pictured above. "Sometimes life is easy. Sometimes it's not. But I'm lucky because I have my brother to share this journey with," he captioned a July Instagram photo featuring both together as young kids. "No matter how hard life might seem at times we always have each other to turn to. Feeling grateful for that."

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.