YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul has alleged that his father would physically abuse him growing up.
The controversial social media star makes the claim in the latest edition of Netflix’s popular docuseries, Untold: Jake Paul the Problem Child, which was released on Tuesday (1 August).
“My dad would slap the s*** out of me,” Paul, 26, claims in the documentary.
“Our parents were really strict and mainly my dad – it was always Logan and I against him,” he says.
Paul’s older brother Logan, 28, a fellow social media star, played down their father Greg’s alleged actions.
“Holy s***. Yo, Greg Paul is a f***ing being. He’s a menace. That guy’s intense,” Logan responds in the documentary.
“Jake may throw around the word ‘abusive.’ I prefer not quite legal.”
Greg, 59, addresses Paul’s claims in the series, saying he “never laid a hand” on his sons; however, he admits to throwing them “on a couch couple times”.
Jake Paul (left) and father Greg Paul— (Getty Images/Netflix)
“That’s what the f*** dads are supposed to do. Welcome to life, get the f*** over it.”
He adds: “Somebody comes in here, they start harassing everybody and smacking around an old lady – do you want a couple Greg Pauls in the room or do you want some f***ing fairy f***, whiny little b**** who’s gonna sit there and talk about emotions? Who do you want in the room?”
Despite the allegations, Paul credits his father with his and Logan’s YouTube success.
“He was so hard and so tough on us that my brother and I’s imaginations really started to flare up,” he says. “So one day we get a camera, and we just start filming our lives.”
Today, Paul has more than 20 million YouTube subscribers and 23 million Instagram followers; though, his career has been marked by numerous controversies, as has his brother Logan’s.
In April 2021, two women came forward with abuse allegations against Paul, which he denied. He began a professional boxing career in 2018 after defeating British YouTuber Deji Olatunji in an amateur contest via TKO.
He has gone on to fight MMA stars Tyron Woodley, Ben Askren and Anderson Silva before taking on and losing by split decision against British boxer and former Love Island star Tommy Fury earlier this year.
“I think people... they don’t think I’m a real person. And I think they judge me from my past a lot, versus looking at who I am today,” he told The Independent’s Combat Sports Correspondent Alex Pattle in a new interview.
“I need boxing. Boxing saved me. I was in a super dark place in my life,” he said of the sport.
Untold: Jake Paul the Problem Child is out now on Netflix.
