Jake Lloyd, known for his role as a young Anakin Skywalker in “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace,” is giving fans an update on his mental health struggles after he was diagnosed with schizophrenia more than a decade ago.
In March 2024, his mom, Lisa Lloyd, spoke to Scripps News about her son’s schizophrenia after he disappeared from the public eye. At the time, she shared that he was 10 months into an 18-month stay at a mental health rehabilitation facility.
The former actor spoke to the article’s author, Clayton Sandell, before the holidays in December 2024 for an interview published Jan. 1 on his newsletter. Jake Lloyd, 35, shared an update on his mental health, sharing that he was feeling “pretty good.”
“I can now accept taking on continued treatment, and therapy, and my meds,” he added. “Everyone’s been very supportive.”
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
Jake Lloyd finished his 18-month stay at the mental health facility at the end of last year and began living at a new rehabilitation center at the beginning of 2025 to continue his treatment with the freedom to come and go.
He shared that “good things” came out of his time receiving impatient treatment and that hitting “rock bottom” was needed so he could “honestly take part in treatment, honestly take your meds, and honestly live with your diagnosis.”
During her initial interview, Lisa Lloyd refuted claims that negative criticism about “Phantom Menace” is what drove her son to quit acting and affected his mental health, sharing that there was a history of schizophrenia on his father’s side of the family.
Entertainment News
Jake Lloyd remains a fan of the “Star Wars” franchise and continues to have a positive relationship with fan interactions.
“The experience I’ve had with the fans is immediately therapeutic,” he said. “Right now, it’s still therapeutic. It’s helpful for people and healthy. It isn’t something I’d shy away from.”
He added, “I really do appreciate the time that’s been taken on us. I’m very appreciative.”
Lisa Lloyd told Scripps News previously that she noticed that her son was “having some troubles” in high school.
“He started talking about ‘realities,’” she said. “He didn’t know if he was in this reality, or a different reality. I didn’t really know exactly what to say to that.”
He was taken to a doctor who thought Jake Lloyd had bipolar disorder and was prescribed different medications. However, he struggled when he left home to attend Columbia College Chicago and eventually left in 2008 to move in with his mom in Indiana.
He was then diagnosed with what was called paranoid schizophrenia, but is now called schizophrenia.
The National Institute of Mental Health describes schizophrenia as a mental health illness that affects how a person behaves, feels, and thinks and can make it seem as though “they have lost touch with reality.
Jake Lloyd also experienced anosognosia, which according to the Cleveland Clinic, is a condition where a person's brain can’t recognize their illness and need for medication.
“He didn’t think he needed to take medication because he wasn’t sick,” his mom said. “He didn’t think he needed to go to the therapist because there’s nothing wrong with him.”
More than halfway through his stay at the mental health rehabilitation facility, Lisa Lloyd said that her son was “doing much better than I expected.”
“He is relating to people better and becoming a little bit more social, which is really nice,” she explained. “It’s kind of like having more of the old Jake back, because he has always been incredibly social until he became schizophrenic.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
