This comedy queen is basking in the limelight now, but her laughter is rooted in a painful past—and a sister’s torment.
A Cutting Nightmare! Comedy Queen Amy Schumer's Dark, Painful Past
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Amy Schumer and Bill Hader attend the Australian 'Trainwreck' premiere **USA ONLY**
Amy Schumer is rocketing to superstardom with a hit Comedy Central show and her first big-screen leading role. Behind the humor, however, the Trainwreck star endured family trauma that was anything but funny.
Photo credit: AKM-GSI
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CinemaCon 2015 - The CinemaCon Big Screen Achievement Awards Brought To You By The Coca-Cola Company - Red Carpet
"We had a really dark couple of years in our house," Amy, 34, recently revealed about an upbringing blighted by her father's multiple sclerosis and bankruptcy and her parents' ugly divorce.
Photo credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
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SNL veteran Bill Hader is down under to promote
"I have a dark sense of humor and the most awful stuff makes me laugh, and I think it's probably because of that," Schumer says. And, as Star has discovered, Amy's bleakest period saw her pulling her younger sister, Kim Caramele, from the brink of suicide.
Photo credit: AKM-GSI
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amy-schumer-cutting-album
Amy Schumer's debut stand-up comedy album was called Cutting, a nod to her biting humor and her sister Kim's struggles with self-mutiliation.
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Inside Amy Schumer 3rd Season Premiere Party
Kim would get a strange, intense pleasure from cutting—and she got hooked on it. "After you do it a few times, it feels so good... and it's easy to keep doing it. It wasn't until the first time I tried to stop that I realized how addicted I was," Kim admitted.
Photo credit: Brad Barket/Getty Images
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'TRAINWRECK'
"I would be like, 'OK, I'm not going to do it.' And I would get sick and throw up. And my arm would start tingling. I would go through physical withdrawal," added Kim.
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'Trainwreck' film premiere, Melbourne, Australia - 21 Jul 2015
Fortunately for Kim, her sister intervened. "I didn't understand the severity; I didn't understand that your body gets addicted to cutting, like, worse than heroin," said Amy, recalling the time she saw her mother carrying a razor to the upstairs bathroom to give to Kim.
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INF - 'Trainwreck' Premiere in Melbourne
"I said, 'What the hell are you doing, Mom? There is no way I'm letting you bring a razor to my little sister," Kim said. Her mother explained that without a razor, Kim might break her head on a mirror instead and use broken glass to satisfy her unbearable urge.
Photo credit: INFPhoto.com
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amy-schumer-cutting-nightmare-10
So Amy confronted Kim in the bathroom, and she remembered her younger sister "cursing at me and screaming, 'You have no idea what it's like!' It was like The Exorcist!" Amy simply looked her sister in the eye and said, "You don't have to do this..."—then left the bathroom.
Photo credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank
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INF - 'Trainwreck' Premiere in Sydney
Ten minutes later, their mother threw the razor down the stairs and happily exclaimed, "She didn't use it! She didn't use it!" With Amy's help, that was a turning point for Kim, who told her sister: "I've been really close to suicide two times in my life. The only reason I didn't was because of you and Mom."
Photo credit: INFPhoto.com
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With therapy and her family's love, Kim quit cutting, married her college sweetheart and went on to become a school psychologist to help other at-risk youth. She also writes for Inside Amy Schumer and served as associate producer on Trainwreck.
Photo credit: El Pics/Getty Images
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Amy plays a party-girl commitmentphobe in Trainwreck, her new movie with Bill Hader. The flick, which she wrote, has autobiographical elements, including a married sister character named Kim.
Amy Schumer and Bill Hader attend the Australian 'Trainwreck' premiere **USA ONLY**
Amy Schumer is rocketing to superstardom with a hit Comedy Central show and her first big-screen leading role. Behind the humor, however, the Trainwreck star endured family trauma that was anything but funny.
Photo credit: AKM-GSI
CinemaCon 2015 - The CinemaCon Big Screen Achievement Awards Brought To You By The Coca-Cola Company - Red Carpet
"We had a really dark couple of years in our house," Amy, 34, recently revealed about an upbringing blighted by her father's multiple sclerosis and bankruptcy and her parents' ugly divorce.
Photo credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
SNL veteran Bill Hader is down under to promote
"I have a dark sense of humor and the most awful stuff makes me laugh, and I think it's probably because of that," Schumer says. And, as Star has discovered, Amy's bleakest period saw her pulling her younger sister, Kim Caramele, from the brink of suicide.
Photo credit: AKM-GSI
amy-schumer-cutting-album
Amy Schumer's debut stand-up comedy album was called Cutting, a nod to her biting humor and her sister Kim's struggles with self-mutiliation.
Inside Amy Schumer 3rd Season Premiere Party
Kim would get a strange, intense pleasure from cutting—and she got hooked on it. "After you do it a few times, it feels so good... and it's easy to keep doing it. It wasn't until the first time I tried to stop that I realized how addicted I was," Kim admitted.
Photo credit: Brad Barket/Getty Images
'TRAINWRECK'
"I would be like, 'OK, I'm not going to do it.' And I would get sick and throw up. And my arm would start tingling. I would go through physical withdrawal," added Kim.
'Trainwreck' film premiere, Melbourne, Australia - 21 Jul 2015
Fortunately for Kim, her sister intervened. "I didn't understand the severity; I didn't understand that your body gets addicted to cutting, like, worse than heroin," said Amy, recalling the time she saw her mother carrying a razor to the upstairs bathroom to give to Kim.
INF - 'Trainwreck' Premiere in Melbourne
"I said, 'What the hell are you doing, Mom? There is no way I'm letting you bring a razor to my little sister," Kim said. Her mother explained that without a razor, Kim might break her head on a mirror instead and use broken glass to satisfy her unbearable urge.
Photo credit: INFPhoto.com
amy-schumer-cutting-nightmare-10
So Amy confronted Kim in the bathroom, and she remembered her younger sister "cursing at me and screaming, 'You have no idea what it's like!' It was like The Exorcist!" Amy simply looked her sister in the eye and said, "You don't have to do this..."—then left the bathroom.
Photo credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank
INF - 'Trainwreck' Premiere in Sydney
Ten minutes later, their mother threw the razor down the stairs and happily exclaimed, "She didn't use it! She didn't use it!" With Amy's help, that was a turning point for Kim, who told her sister: "I've been really close to suicide two times in my life. The only reason I didn't was because of you and Mom."
Photo credit: INFPhoto.com
amy-schumer-cutting-nightmare-7
With therapy and her family's love, Kim quit cutting, married her college sweetheart and went on to become a school psychologist to help other at-risk youth. She also writes for Inside Amy Schumer and served as associate producer on Trainwreck.
Photo credit: El Pics/Getty Images
Amy plays a party-girl commitmentphobe in Trainwreck, her new movie with Bill Hader. The flick, which she wrote, has autobiographical elements, including a married sister character named Kim.
