Cole Sprouse and his twin bother, Dylan, were hugely popular and high-earning Disney stars as children, but their mother allegedly squandered all their money away.
The "Riverdale" star said he and his brother were essentially broke long before they were teenagers. In fact, Cole said that by the time he and his bother were 10, their mom, now estranged, had "lost" all their earnings.
"Both my brother and I went through a lengthy court battle at about 10, and custody was stripped from my mother and given to my father," he told the "Call Her Daddy" podcast. "[My father] desperately wanted us to be normal kids, and my mother wanted us to be … a bit more of a caricature of two normal kids."
The Sprouse boy's parents had a decidedly different view on how to raise the kids… and they had vastly different spending habits.
"I don't think I've ever talked about this … 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," Cole said.
The "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" actor, now 30, said his mom, Melanie Wright Sprouse, had mental health and addiction issues.
"I think if anyone knew the kind of woman she was, they could have said it would have gone the exact same way," Cole explained. "I am remorseful in very many ways that she wasn't able to get out of it but I don't blame her at all."
Although Cole has no relationship with his mother now, he still misses her.
"In truth, she lost her mind," he said. "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."