Tyler Perry Grieves His Mom Maxine Perry's Death 15 Years Later: 'This Life Is So Short'

Mar. 15, 2025

Tyler Perry on Dec. 9, 2024 and his mother Maxine Perry on Feb. 21, 2006.Photo:Randy Shropshire/Getty; Frazer Harrison/Getty

Randy Shropshire/Getty; Frazer Harrison/Getty

Tyler Perryis sharing how he is still grieving his late mother Maxine Perry, 15 years after her death.

Perry, 55, appeared onstage at the Critics Choice Association’s Seventh Annual Celebration of Black Cinema and Television in Los Angeles on Monday, Dec. 9 to receive the event’s icon award for his new movieThe Six Triple Eight.When the actor, writer and filmmaker took the stage to receive his award, he told the assembled audience thatAunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who had just received an award for her role inNickel Boys, “messed me up” with her speech.

“You know, every time I think I’m all right, somebody will say something that will grip me in my soul. The first thing she said it was a quote, the first weapon I ever held was my mother’s hand. My mother died 15 years ago yesterday, but this year was different,” Perry said in his speech. “This year I was at Netflix and a tremendous amount of loss of death all around me,” he added, noting that his colleagueSteve Mensch, the president of Tyler Perry Studios, was just killed in a plane crash on Friday, Dec. 6.

“I’ve been trying to push and I know the show must go on, and I try to show up,” Perry told the audience. While theMadeastar said he did not prepare remarks, he shared his perspective on aging — Perry turned 55 in September — as he reflected, “This life is so short.”

Maxine Perry and Tyler Perry on Feb. 21, 2006.Frazer Harrison/Getty

Frazer Harrison/Getty

While Perry said he is still grieving at the Critics Choice Association’s event, he told the audience, “I’ll be fine. It’s usually this time of the year I go away.”

Tyler Perry on Dec. 9, 2024.Michael Rowe/Getty

Michael Rowe/Getty

“When you’re grieving, you can’t really trust yourself. You gotta be careful who you around,” he said. “… I like to back up and get away and get alone and let the grief show up wherever it does. So to everybody who’s grieving, who’s lost someone in this room, listen to me, just grieve. My prayer for you is that it shows up for you like waves, gentle ones that you can get through from day to day without it overtaking you.”

Perry’s new movieThe Six Triple Eightis streaming on Netflix now.

source: people.com