Jake Lloyd, known for his role as young Anakin Skywalker in “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace,” is opening up about his mental health struggles after being diagnosed with schizophrenia more than a decade ago.
In March 2024, his mother, Lisa Lloyd, spoke to Script News about son’s schizophrenia after disappearing from public view. At the time, she shared that he was 10 months into an 18-month stay at a mental health rehab center.
The former actor spoke with the article’s author, Clayton Sandell, ahead of the December 2024 holiday for an interview published January 1 on his newsletter. Jake Lloyd, 35, gave an update on his mental health, sharing that he feels “pretty good.”
“I can now agree to continue my treatment, therapy and medication,” he added. “Everyone was very supportive.”
Jake Lloyd completed his 18-month stay in a mental health facility late last year and began living in a new rehabilitation center in early 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 it was necessary to reach “rock bottom” to be able to “participate honestly in treatment, take your medication honestly, and live honestly with your diagnosis.”
In her first interview, Lisa Lloyd refuted claims that negative reviews about “Phantom Menace” caused her son to quit acting and affected his mental health, sharing that there was a history of schizophrenia from the side of his father.
Jake Lloyd remains a fan of the “Star Wars” franchise and continues to have a positive relationship with fan interactions.
“The experience I had with the fans was immediately therapeutic,” he said. “At the moment, it’s still therapeutic. It is useful for people and healthy. It’s not something I would be afraid of.
He added: “I really appreciate your time. I am very grateful.
Lisa Lloyd previously told Scripps News that she noticed her son was “having problems” 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 how to respond to that.
He was taken to a doctor who believed Jake Lloyd had bipolar disorder and prescribed him different medications. However, he struggled to leave home to attend Columbia College Chicago and eventually left in 2008 to move in with his mother in Indiana.
He was later diagnosed with what is called paranoid schizophrenia, but it is now called schizophrenia.
THE National Institute of Mental Health describes schizophrenia as a mental illness that affects the way a person behaves, feels and thinks and can make them feel like they have “lost touch with reality”.
Jake Lloyd also suffered from anosognosia, which according to the Cleveland Clinicis a condition in which a person’s brain cannot recognize their illness and need for medication.
“He didn’t think he needed to take medicine because he wasn’t sick,” his mother said. “He didn’t think he needed to go to the therapist because there was nothing wrong with him.”
More than halfway through his stay at a mental health rehabilitation center, Lisa Lloyd said her son is “doing a lot better than I expected.”
“He has better relationships with people and is becoming a little more social, which is really nice,” she said. “It’s a bit like finding old Jake, because he was always incredibly social until he became schizophrenic.”