“Paradise” star Sarah Shahi says her father held a gun to her head when she was 6
“Paradise” star Sarah Shahi says her father held a gun to her head when she was 6
Wesley StenzelWed, January 28, 2026 at 10:47 PM UTC
0
Sarah Shahi in London on Jan. 24, 2026
Jeff Spicer/Getty
Key points -
Sarah Shahi writes about a troubling incident with her father from her childhood in her new book Life Is Lifey.
The actress says that when she was six, her dad "held a gun to my head" during the middle of a "bad episode" under the influence of drugs.
Shahi writes that her father's "drug-fueled plan" was to "kill me then himself."
Sarah Shahi is reflecting on a traumatic incident from her childhood.
In her new book Life Is Lifey: The A to Z’s on Navigating Life’s Messy Middle, the Sex/Life actress details an encounter in which her father threatened her with a firearm.
"My father, God bless his soul, was a drug addict," she writes of her dad, who died in 2015. "He was abusive not only to my mother, but one fateful summer afternoon, to me, too."
Shahi writes that her father was "in the middle of a bad episode" when the fateful incident occurred. "He took me outside, held me on his hip, and held a gun to my head," she says. "I was six and don't remember anything prior to this moment. But I remember what happened after. I remember how cold the metal was against my temple. I remember the way he held me, his head hung low, too heavy to lift, as silent tears ran down his face."
Sarah Shahi and Adam Demos on 'Sex/Life'
Sabrina Lantos/Netflix
The Paradise actress says that her dad repeatedly told her that she was "too good, too pure, to be living in this world," and that "it was time for us to 'go home'" together.
"His drug-fueled plan was clear: kill me then himself," she recalls. "In his twisted mind, my mother would follow, taking her own life in despair."
Fortunately, Shahi's mother intervened before the situation escalated any further. "The sound of his gut-wrenching sobs pulled her outside, like a siren. She froze. Her breath caught in her throat," she remembers. "I saw my mother's face collapse, dropping six feet below ground when she saw me in my dad's arms. I could hear her heartbeat, a slow echoing thud. It was as if the air had thickened, every small detail magnified in perfect, painful clarity. And there we were, in that split-second moment, frozen in time."
Advertisement
The actress says that her mother managed to disarm her father. "She moved toward him quietly, with a gentleness as if she were approaching a wounded animal, fragile and sacred," she writes. "I don’t remember her exact words, only the murmur of her voice. She reached for the gun, her hand open and waiting, and he surrendered it to her, the metal slipping into her palm as he crumbled, collapsing onto her shoulder."
Shahi's mother then escorted her to safety. "Without a word, she wrapped her arm around me and ushered me inside," the actress recalls. "As we moved away, I caught one last glimpse of my father, crying on the ground, surrounded by a small puddle that seemed to hold all the heaviness in the world."
Sarah Shahi in Santa Monica, Calif., on Jan. 4, 2026
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty
Shahi said that the severity of the situation wasn't immediately clear to her as a child. "Alongside my superhero of a mother, my own innocent naiveté shielded me," she said. "At such a tender age, I couldn't fully grasp the gravity of what was unfolding, but for reasons I still can't explain, fear never took hold of me. My attention was drawn to him — a certain desperation in his eyes, something so raw that in my six-year-old heart, all I could do was feel for him, and in that strange, innocent way, I felt empathy."
Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.
The Person of Interest actress says that her relationship with her dad was "never simple" as she grew up. "Life with an addict is like living on the edge of a cliff — you're always waiting for a shift in the wind," she writes. "My mother and I drifted through long seasons of uncertainty, each one more unpredictable than the last. When he was up, it felt like we were touching the sky; his joy was contagious. But when he spiraled down, we plummeted with him, falling to depths so low we felt the darkness press against our chests."
Shahi writes that her difficult episodes with her father have helped make her more resilient. "This experience with my father, and every other that was vomited onto my lap, taught me that I will pull myself back up no matter how steep the climb," she writes.
Life Is Lifey: The A to Z’s on Navigating Life’s Messy Middle is now available in bookstores everywhere.
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
