Cole Sprouse Claims His Mother Forced Him and Dylan to Become Child Actors

Cole and Dylan's parents, Matthew Sprouse and Melanie Wright, got married in 1990 and welcomed their sons in 1992 while living in Italy. According to Insider, Matthew and Melanie named Cole after the jazz singer Nat King Cole and Dylan after the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. The couple were teaching at an English-language school in Tuscany when they became first-time parents but moved back to California shortly after Cole and Dylan's arrival. According to BuzzFeed, Matthew and Melanie split when their kids were less than a year old.

A few years ago, Cole revealed on Tumblr that his mother put him and Dylan into acting when they were just 8 months old. "I never made the decision to join the arts or acting specifically. And so it was never really my passion," Cole said in a since-deleted audio clip on Tumblr, per Insider.

While their mother reportedly pushed the two into acting early on due to financial reasons, Cole told "Call Her Daddy" that his father apparently wasn't into the idea initially. "[My father] desperately wanted us to be normal kids, and my mother wanted us to be a bit more of a caricature of two normal kids," he said.

In a March 13 interview on podcast "The Diary of a CEO," Cole described his mother as "the tortured artist type" who "struggled" to find her "place in the world." Apart from the fact that his and Dylan's acting jobs helped sustain the family, Cole thinks another reason his mother was so adamant they go into acting is that it helped fulfill an old dream of hers. "I think it satisfied some sort of narcissism she probably had in order to be recognized as this sort of artistic success," he said. "But as time went on, I think the entertainment industry just sort of broke her."

Cole alleged Melanie wasn't responsible with her kids' early acting money and she eventually lost custody of him and Dylan. "When my father was given forced custody, we had pretty much lost everything from the youngest parts of our career. That would be 'Friends' and 'Big Daddy,'" he said on "Call Her Daddy."

Cole became estranged from his mother in adulthood due to everything she put him and Dylan through. "In truth, she lost her mind," he said. "I think it was the consequence of some weird alchemy of addiction and mental instability, and it's probably the greatest wound in my life and also the greatest driving force for my continuing in this industry."

In a March 2020 interview with the New York Daily News, Dylan said that his personal issues at home impacted his school life. "I was not a good kid. And I was always in trouble," he said. "And I was dealing with a lot of stuff at home that I was bringing to school and taking out on other people." However, Dylan said that once he was in a "nurturing environment," he "became a much better person."

Cole told "Call Her Daddy" that he's become estranged from his mother over the years, and while they don't speak, he says he'll always care about her. "I think if anyone knew the kind of woman she was, they could have said it would have gone the exact same way. I am remorseful in very many ways that she wasn't able to get out of it, but I don't blame her at all," he said, adding that he "misses" her.

Cole shows his love for Melanie on Instagram by occasionally sharing throwback pictures of his mom, and she does the same for him and Dylan on her page. As for their dad, Cole has a good relationship with Matthew. On "The Diary of a CEO," the actor called his dad an "incredible guy" for stepping up and raising him and Dylan following their parents' messy custody battle.

Cole also praised Matthew on "Call Her Daddy," saying he'd always be willing to help his father financially. "I love my father very much. My father put a lot of his life on hold in order to ensure that my brother and I were OK, and I owe him a lot for that," Cole said. "If that comes through financial conversations, then so be it. I want to get my dad the f*cking car he wants. I want to get my dad the house he wants. I want to make sure he's all good."