During one of Oscar De La Hoya’s “Ask Me Anything” sessions on Instagram, one of his fans asked the boxing great how he felt about the Blink-182 drummer parenting his daughter, Atiana De La Hoya. Oscar De La Hoya responded by saying he had “nothing but respect” for Travis Barker. It has been almost two years since Oscar De La Hoya made this statement.
Now, for the first time since making the succinct commendation, De La Hoya is opening up like never before to ET about not raising his kids, extolling the mother of his children, and elevating Barker for being an admirable father figure to Atiana, whom De La Hoya shares with former beauty queen Shanna Moakler.
During a wide-ranging conversation with the well-known boxing promoter in San Antonio, Texas, prior to the premiere of his two-part HBO documentary, The Golden Boy, De La Hoya found himself at peace admitting that he was, for lack of a better word, an absentee father. He is now, as he says, giving “credit where credit is due.”
“Listen, I’m not the one who brought up my children, do you understand? That responsibility fell on their mothers. De La Hoya tells ET, “and I have to give credit where credit is due.” “You know, I’m thankful that Barker was there for my daughter in the role of a father figure. I have no choice but to acknowledge my gratitude to Shanna for the role she played in Atiana’s upbringing and accept that I am not Atiana’s mother. My position – it should come as no surprise that I am a father, but I take great pride in that fact. However, I cannot express my appreciation enough for all that they have done. Especially when it comes to Barker. It’s evident that he’s risen up to the challenge.”
Atiana was born in 1999 to De La Hoya and Moakler, who had previously held the title of Miss USA. Atiana was only five years old when Moakler wed Barker in October 2004, and when De La Hoya and Moakler ultimately divorced, she had seen him on TV in September 2000 attending the Latin GRAMMYs with another lady. At that time, Moakler was seeing another woman.
Because of the close relationship that developed between Atiana and Barker in the years that followed, many people who were only able to see events from the outside often and unequivocally assert that Barker was Atiana’s parent. Even when Barker and Moakler had a divorce in 2008 after just three years of marriage, they have maintained a strong friendship with one another. Moakler is the mother of Barker’s children Landon, 19, and Alabama, 17; Barker is now married to Kourtney Kardashian, and the two of them share children.
According to De La Hoya, he is also in touch with the drummer who is smeared in ink, and he has nothing but admiration for the drummer.
“He’s such a nice guy,” adds De La Hoya of Barker. “He has my utmost respect,” is how I would phrase it.
He continues by saying, “He’s a decent man. I’ve had a number of conversations with him. In addition to that, we talk about Atiana. Simply said, I am thankful for all that he has done.”
Jacob, age 25, and Devon, age 24, are De La Hoya’s children from prior relationships with Toni Alvarado and Angelicque McQueen, respectively. De La Hoya is also the father of two grandsons. De La Hoya married Puerto Rican singer and actress Milagros “Millie” Corretjer in October 2001, and the couple has since been blessed with three children: a son named Oscar, who is now 17 years old, a daughter named Nina, who is 14 years old, and a daughter named Victoria, who is 9 years old. They went their own ways in 2016, but De La Hoya didn’t file for divorce until quite recently (in January).
De La Hoya has become a different person, a “liberated” person, since overcoming his demons and confronting them head-on in the Fernando Villena-directed documentary, The Golden Boy — his substance abuse, multiple stints in rehab, womanizing, the fallout from that 2007 photo of him in women’s clothing, the “twisted” relationship he had with his mother, Cecilia, who passed away from breast cancer in 1990 — and, perhaps most importantly, is a better father.
De La Hoya has not been coy about the fact that his mother was a physically violent person, nor about the fact that he was reared by an emotionally jaded father, Joel Sr., who showed absolutely little emotion on the day that Cecilia passed away. But now that he’s 50 years old, De La Hoya promises to do things differently.
“I would never touch my kids,” he asserts. “I would never do that.” I make it a point to tell my children, ‘I love you,’ and I always make sure to give them a peck on the cheek.
Regarding the “machismo” or sense of macho pride that pervaded society for many years, “It’s broken,” is what De La Hoya proclaims with much pride. The enchantment has been shattered.”
And it’s broken because he’s learned to forgive his mother, who he claims was physically abusive to him virtually on a daily basis while he was growing up. Despite the fact that he claims that she was solely abusive to him and not to his elder brother Joel Jr. or his younger sister Ceci, he believes that she was.
“Recently, I actually set myself free with my mother by forgiving her. It’s been a couple of years now, but I did it.” I had no choice than to forgive her,” adds De La Hoya. “I had to find a way to forgive her and to persuade myself that everything would be all right. This piece of wisdom was given to me by someone else: If you are able to forgive your greatest adversary, then you have really set yourself free. Because of this, I often had the impression that my own mother was trying to be my worst enemy.
“When I let go of anything that was holding me back, it’s like, ‘I’m OK now.’ However, I put forth a lot of effort. I put forth a lot of effort,” he goes on to say. “Therapy. Rehabs. A significant amount of sobbing and drinking. All of the **** things we do. It is a relief that I was finally able to accomplish my goal and take control of my life. I can now spend the rest of my life without worry.”
But in order for De La Hoya to be a better parent, he needed to make things right with his father, who is now 84 years old, which he finally accomplished.
“After some time had passed, I finally worked up the nerve to tell him that I loved him. “I’m sharing this for the very first time,” De La Hoya says. “I hesitated because I thought, gosh, maybe he’s going to strike me or anything. I didn’t know what to do. ‘What?! You adore me?! What?!’ You are aware? But I confessed to him, ‘I love you,’ and do you know what he did in response? He began bawling his eyes out. ‘I adore you too.’ I mean, since then, I have not once heard it anywhere else. However, it’s a wonderful beginning.”
HBO will begin broadcasting Part Two of The Golden Boy on July 25, after the launch of the first part on July 24.