Terrence Howard Talks Money Problems & Witnessing His Father’s Violent Crime

By: Amanda Anderson-Niles

“Empire” star Terrence Howard is always making the headlines for his messy personal life, but the actor doesn’t shy away from any of his life in his interviews.

He even opened up about his current money problems.

Rolling Stone writes:

He smiles back. “You know, all my checks from Fox are being held for garnishment, because of my ex. I’m broke as can be. But my wife, she did well for herself, so she’s covered us. This place, she’s renting it. I’m suffering. There’s nothing worse than being a broke movie star.”

Terrence also revealed he was very young when he witnessed his father attack someone viciously while they waited in line to see Santa Claus. It eerily reminds him of his own incident which resulted in him attacking a couple at a restaurant after they accused him of cutting the line:

One of the oddest things is how the 2005 restaurant incident echoes what happened with his father, Tyrone, then a 21-year-old unemployed laborer, at that Cleveland department store in 1971. It too started off as an argument about who was next in a line. One man, who had three of his kids with him, accused Tyrone of cutting in front of them with his own three kids, including two-year-old Terrence, and his pregnant wife, Anita. It boiled over into violence, and somehow, Tyrone got hold of a nail file, stabbed the guy until he fell, then fled the scene. The crime made national news and became known as the “Santa Line Slaying.”

“I was standing next to my father, watching,” Howard says. “Then stuff happened so quickly — blood was on the coats, on our jackets — and then my dad’s on a table and then my dad is gone to prison.”