A complicated relationship. Cole Sprouse surprised fans when he candidly addressed his issues with mom Melanie Wright following major ups and downs throughout his childhood.

Cole and his twin brother, Dylan Sprouse, rose to fame as child stars in projects such as Big Daddy, Friends, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, The Suite Life on Deck and more.

The Riverdale star later recalled how his and Dylan’s upbringing was affected by their mom’s issues.

“My mother was — still is — the tortured artist type. She struggled with, in many different ways, her place in the world,” he explained on the “Diary of a CEO” podcast in March 2023. “I think she found a tremendous amount of self-identity through motherhood and tried to turn it into a profitable business at the same time, which for identical twin boys going into acting is [an] economic loophole — there are labor laws that can be incredibly profitable, so that’s what she did.”

That same month, Cole revealed that their estranged mother “lost” all of the money they earned by the time they were 10.

“[My father Matthew Sprouse] 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 on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, noting that his dad received sole custody at the time. “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. My mother was an incredibly wonderful and artistic woman, but she was financially the most irresponsible person ever.”

The California native confirmed that he had no relationship with his mother since he became an adult. “In truth, she lost her mind,” he added. “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. I miss her a lot. She was an incredibly beautiful and artistic woman.”

According to Cole, his and Dylan’s gig on Disney Channel’s The Suite Life of Zack & Cody was “life-saving” for their family.

“By the time my brother and I got to the Disney Channel, we were good. It was a huge boon to us,” he said about the show, which ran from 2005 to 2008 and received a sequel. “It provided us with an amount of stability and consistency, and routine, that really was needed for my brother and I at the time.”

The photographer also admitted that he continued to pay his family’s bills over the years until he found success on The CW’s Riverdale.

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“Once you realize the lifestyle you want to acquire financially, I don’t think there’s anything more noble than taking care of your family with the financial independence that you’ve been given,” he concluded, adding that he would always be willing to help his father out financially.

Scroll down for Cole’s most candid quotes about his relationship with his mother:

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