“I Began to Be S*icidal”: Deion Sanders Recalls Ugly Divorce With Ex Wife Pilar to Drop Shocking Truth Bomb

Published 03/12/2024, 11:22 AM EDT

Deion Sanders’s life is a tale of closely woven monumental highs and treacherously steep lows. Being the ‘SI Sportsperson of the Year: 2023’ Prime surely knows his way around all the highs life brought him. Being a style guru the moment he stepped foot in the NFL, securing the Lombardi trophy twice, and being enshrined as a Hall of Famer in 2011, you already know it all. Yet, maneuvering around these did not prepare him for the tumultuous low life was about to hurl at him.

Deion Sanders underwent his first divorce in 1998 with his first wife, Carolyn Chambers. Prime was around 30 years old when he got his first divorce filed due to ‘unresolved issues’. The two had taken their vows in 1989 and were blessed with two children during the decade they spent together. The verdict of the court of giving Carolyn Chambers the custody of Deiondra Sanders and Deion Sanders Jr. was a defining point of Sanders’ life.

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“Those are the only two people people that I felt like love me in my whole life because it was genuine. Like these are my kids. They came from me,” Sanders expressed the turmoil he went through when he was separated from his first-born kids, almost on the verge of breaking down. Then, he dropped the truth that had the fans aghast. “I began to be s*icidal,” Sanders said in his interview with Ed Mylett.

Despite having the best of the luxuries in his life, Prime Time felt a vacuuming loneliness settling into his life. Deion Sanders also reported undergoing a severe depressive episode that prompted him to commit s*icide. Once he was out of the episode, Sanders shared an incident that left him scarred when he first addressed what he went through. “When I came out and told the world, this is what I was going through, this is what I was dealing with, they didn’t believe me.” While the fans were not too emphatic towards Prime, the one who brought him out of the episode was.

How Deion Sanders got out of the episode

“I finally had to get on my knees and say, Lord take me man, I can’t do this no more,” Sanders said in his interview. During this time, Deion Sanders was up in his condo in Cincinnati for his MLB matchups. Prime Time reported “giving my life to the Lord in a condo all alone in Cincinnati” as he started walking down the path of spirituality.

It was through his agent that Sanders connected to his Bishop Omar, who guided him closely in his path of spirituality.

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Along the way, Sanders also formed a close acquaintance with pastor E Dewey Smith. Deion Sanders grew more closer with Smith following Bishop Omar passing away in 2020. Since then, Deion Sanders has given the utmost importance to mental health in his life. In May 2021, Coach Prime launched his Hall Of Fame Behavioral Health program, with the motto to provide necessary resources to current and former players and their families to help address issues tied to mental and behavioral health and substance abuse. What do you think about Deion Sanders’ inspiring journey and his efforts to help those he can?

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Soon to Be “Granddaddy” Deion Sanders Celebrates Deiondra’s Pregnancy News by Dropping Hilarious Comment

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Written by:

Pankti Parmar is an NFL news writer at EssentiallySports. She combines her educational background in psychology with a passion for sports to delve into the minds of athletes and their game strategies. She's our resident expert on Jim Harbaugh and played a pivotal role in our play-by-play coverage of Harbaugh's journey from the Wolverines to the Chargers.

Edited by:

Anuj Jacob

“I Began to Be S*icidal”: Deion Sanders Recalls Ugly Divorce With Ex Wife Pilar to Drop Shocking Truth Bomb

How Deion Sanders got out of the episode

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