In his autobiography, released Wednesday, boxing great Mickey Ward writes that he was sexually abused by a family friend from age 9 until he was 12.
In the book, ‘A Warrior’s Heart: The True Story of Life Before and Beyond The Fighter,’ the Lowell native writes that the attacker, 10 years his senior ‘never asked me to do anything to him, but rather I was always on the receiving end of his advances. It wasn’t every month or every week, but it happened and it happened many times.’
On Tuesday, Ward told the New York Post he’s kept the fact from friends and family, including half-brother and trainer Dicky Eklund. But the book, he said, ‘was about my life, and I might as well tell the whole story.’
Ward, who was portrayed by Mark Wahlberg in the 2010 film ‘The Fighter,’ recalls that he confronted his attacker twice since the abuse, including a boxing match at a gym when Ward was 15. But Ward says he didn’t hurt the man either time. ‘I could have ripped his head off,’ he writes. ‘But I realized that if I … took justice into my own hands, and wound up spending the rest of my life rotting in a prison cell … he would have won.’