Rob Lowe’s son never got a sit-down chat from his parents about the sex tape scandal (Picture: Getty)
There’s arguably never a ‘good’ time to find out your dad made a sex tape but unfortunately for Rob Lowe’s son, he found out from his classmates.
American actor Rob, 59, was involved in a sex scandal in 1988 when he was 24, as a tape of him having sex with two women went public.
The video of the rendezvous made its way to the press, with Rob facing a lawsuit from one of the girls’ mothers the following year, given that she was 16 at the time, while the other woman was 22 .
Rob – who was campaigning for Michael Dukakis at the time – denied knowing she was underage.
The film star managed to salvage his career and even mocked his scandal years later – but that still didn’t save his son the embarrassment of finding out at school.
‘I was in eighth grade or freshman year of high school, and some kid said, “You know, your dad has a sex tape online,”‘ John Owen, 28, began. ‘I was like, “What?”‘
Back in the eighties, the actor’s tape was leaked to the press, with a lawsuit from on of the girls’ mothers to follow (Picture: Robin Platzer/Images/Getty Images)
The young actor explained to Men’s Health that there was no ‘sit-down’ kitchen-table conversation about the whole thing at home, and neither mum Sheryl Berkoff nor dad Rob mentioned it when reminiscing on the eighties.
He said both his parents were very involved and ‘hands on’, but not with regards to this.
‘You know what it’s kind of like? Santa Claus,’ John went on.
‘I don’t think most parents ever have that moment where they sit the kids down and go, “Ok, we’ve got to tell you something.” A kid just figures it out. There weren’t milestone markers, like, “Ok, he’s 16 now, time for them to learn about this part of our life!”‘
‘Wikipedia and Google took care of that for us,’ dad Rob joked as he interjected.
Speaking in 2019 about his sex tap scandal, Rob revealed the one regret he has – not cashing in.
He shares sons John Owen Lowe and Matthew Edward Lowe with wife Sheryl Berkoff (Picture: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic)
The tape became one of the first celebrity sex tapes to be commercially sold – but Rob never saw a penny of the takings.
He explained: ‘The problem was, I didn’t make any money off of it like everybody does. I was too stupid.’
Speaking to Sirius XM about his live show, Stories I Only Tell My Friends: LIVE!, Rob revealed he was willing to touch on the scandal on stage: ‘I talk about everything.
‘Here’s the thing, every time you’re doing a memoir, a book, a show about your life – job one is authenticity and full transparency.
‘There can’t be that one area you won’t talk about. My whole life is there.’
While the sex tape did temporarily affect his career, Rob also admitted it was the catalyst he needed to turn his life around for the better.
‘It’s one of the reasons I got sober. I woke up one day and was like, “What am I doing with my life?”
Rob has spoken candidly about his scandal since, joking about it on stage in shows (Picture: John Lamparski/Getty Images)
‘I’m 29 years in. I honestly think it’s the best thing that happened to me. I got sober. Sober got me married. I’ve been married for 29 years. I have two great sons.
‘It’s not a great recipe for success to give an 18-year-old male fame, money and drugs and expect there not to be something that goes wrong.
‘I talk a lot about recovery in the show because it’s good to see the example… I needed the examples when I was trying to change my life.
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‘It’s moving because it’s a serious – literal life and death issue – but it’s also really funny, I do a whole thing about how I loved going to rehab that I’d suggest if Christmas break you’re thinking about going to Cabo San Lucas or rehab, I’d pick rehab.’
Rob married Sheryl in 1991 and the couple share both sons John and Edward Matthew Lowe, and the actor has been sober for 30 years.
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