Liza Soberano opens up about childhood trauma—from parents' drug involvement to foster family treating her like a 'dog'

Mother's new boyfriend a 'really bad news'

Noting that it "comes to me in flashes," Soberano recalled some of her other childhood trauma, including with her mother's new boyfriend, Michael.

"This guy was really bad news," she said. "He had stolen a minivan from off the street, and then he took me, my mom, and little brother. I was probably two at the time and my brother was one."

Though struggling to remember, she said they were staying in the van even as she also made attempts to escape.

At the time, her mother's family already filed for a missing persons report, and Soberano said they were on the news "for kidnapping."

During one attempt to escape, she remembered Michael "scooping" her up, carrying her and bringing her back inside the van.

"And then there was this big fight between my mom, me, and Michael," she said, adding that Michael was "really mad" as he was about to get caught.

She recalled her mother saying they had to buy a few things, and was left in the van with Michael.

"The next thing I remember, he was screaming at me... telling me to hit my brother in the head with my car seat, to use it to bash his head," she said. "And then the next thing I know it, he hits me in the head with the bottom of a gun that he was holding."

When Jacqueline returned with flashlight batteries, Soberano recalled hearing sirens, realizing that her mother called the cops. Michael, then, pulled Jacqueline's hair from the window, tearing her hair and scalp "a bit" as he "started driving the car while holding on to her hair."

Ultimately, Michael and Jacqueline were arrested.

Foster family maltreatment

Jacqueline had to receive treatment from the hospital first before being imprisoned. With Soberano and her brother about to get parentless, they briefly stayed with their grandparents but ultimately went to foster care, going through "a few homes."

At the one where she had stayed the longest, Soberano recalled Melissa, who was supposedly Jacqueline's best friend but was "really far from the truth apparently."

While things were alright in the beginning, they eventually got worse as Melissa, who had three kids, allegedly treated her differently as weeks went by.

During the birthday party of one of her kids, Melissa allegedly told her and her brother to stay in their room for hours. As one of the other kids asked them to come out, Soberano recalled being thrown cupcakes at.

"I didn't really think of it as something that was mean," she said.

But afterward, Soberano recognized further abuse, including being excluded from family movie nights as she's called the "family dog."

"They would literally call me the family dog," she said, crying. "I would have to sit in like a big cardboard box behind the sofa."

Trying to maintain her composure, she continued, "I would actually sit there like a dog."

Soberano then claimed that Melissa "started really abusing" her, "not just psychologically."

She recalled eating spaghetti and was forced to eat a meatball, making her choke. She said Melissa didn't do anything and just watched her. That, she said, led to her phobia of meatballs now.

Soberano also recalled the "actual family dog" taking a dump on the carpet, and she was called to clean it up. But after getting a brush, she was told to use her tongue. She thought it was a joke until Melissa allegedly grabbed the back of her head and forced her on the carpet.

During an outing, they went to a drive-thru, and Soberano recalled not being asked what food she wanted. When she tried to ask for chicken nuggets, she was denied and when they got home, she said she wasn't allowed inside and had to sleep in the garage as punishment.

"It was cold, it was dark. There was no bed. I kept on banging on the garage door over and over, crying and screaming," she said.

She was eventually let out, but was told to "shut up" or else her brother would be stuffed in the freezer.

Soberano also recalled not eating for days, then getting fed "a lot of food" in some days.

Social worker learns the truth

With a social worker doing monthly checks on them, Soberano said Melissa would suddenly treat her "really nicely, like extra nicely" and tell her things she wanted to hear.

That prompted her to lie to the social worker during interviews.

"I’d say that everything was fine, that I was happy, that Melissa was so good to me, that the kids are so good to me, that the conditions are fine,” she said.

But a social worker once did an unannounced visit and saw what was really happening.

"That was the first time that the social worker had seen the signs of abuse manifest on my body," she said. "I was so skinny but my stomach was so big. It was bloated, and I had bruising. I had a scratch on my face."

At the time, John was still serving his sentence before getting deported. He learned what happened and called his parents, who were also in the US, to adopt Soberano and her brother.

"My grandparents took very good care of us," Soberano said. "We were actually living a lavish lifestyle... it was the first time that me and my brother were experiencing something like this."

Nevertheless, Soberano said she's still "obsessed" with her mother.

"It's funny because I was very aware of everything that had happened but I had never build up like this hatred or resentment towards her," she said. "I craved and longed to be with her."

Later on, Jacqueline would visit them, but would introduce a new sibling to Soberano.

Liza Soberano goes to the Philippines

Soberano's grandfather eventually had a heart attack that led to an open heart surgery, causing a "very bad financial setback." It prompted them to move to another home and her grandmother quitting her job to take care of him.

The local star, then 10, and her brother then went to the Philippines and met their dad for the first time.

“I strongly opposed to this,” she said. “I didn’t like my dad at all. I didn't grow up with him."

But since "that's what needed to happen," she said she had no choice but to live with her "estranged father."

Soberano struggled with culture shock, noting that Manila wasn't what it is now.

She also recalled "a lot of fear" and "uncertainty" when a "guy" would come up to kiss her on the cheek out of nowhere, later knowing it's John.

"I just pushed him and I felt disgusted,” she said. “He expected that we would act like we knew each other all this time, but we only had like conversations on the phone that would last like three minutes.

"He didn't know how to take it step by step, and he just made me uncomfortable," she added.

Soberano noted that John "demanded so much" from her as a daughter, which she thinks felt "unmerited" because he wasn't around when she was growing up.

"I developed this habit of making myself so small out of fear of being a burden to people. I was afraid that if I did something that they didn’t like or something that upset people, that they wouldn’t want me anymore or that I’d become unworthy of their love," she mused, adding it's why she "tolerated and accepted a lot of disrespect and abuse out of fear of losing people that weren’t afraid of losing me."

It's the first time that Soberano went into so much detail about her childhood trauma publicly.

In the same episode, she also finally confirmed her breakup with her reel-to-real partner Enrique Gil, saying it's already been three years.