Tiffany Haddish opens up about her life in foster care

Tiffany Haddish opened up about her early life and survival in foster care.

"My talent is what helped me survive," The Hollywood Reporter quoted her as saying on the David Letterman show.

She talked about the car accident she was involved in when she was 9-years-old in which her mother's head went through the windshield. The actor recalled that she had to learn walking, talking and eating all over again.

Haddish described how her mother changed after the mishap and added, "I didn't want to be with my mom no more, because she had become very violent and verbally abusive. You never knew who she was going to be; I was begging my mom to go live with my grandma."

She along with her siblings was sent to a foster home which Haddish calls "the worst feeling in the world."

Haddish continued, "You're dropped in these strangers' houses, you don't know these people, these people don't know you, you don't know if they're gonna hurt you, if they're gonna be kind, you don't have a clue what's going on."

She also recollected memories of the time when she left the care and felt being a person with a purpose.

"I remember when I got my first suitcase, I felt like I was a traveller, like I had a purpose, like I'm a person, like I'm not garbage, I got this -- it's mine, and my things are in here, and wherever I go I can take this with me and I'm going somewhere, I'm a human. I'm not garbage."

She began doing stand-up acts at the Laugh Factory Comedy Camp in 1997, and explained that was the place where she learned how to perform.

"That's where I learned communication, confidence, I learned how to construct a joke, I learned how to stand in front of a room full of people and not be afraid, and also when to be funny and when not to be funny."

Towards the end of the show, host David Letterman praised the actor and said, "I know that culture and family and nurturing and the lack of it can be formative, but you're your own person, and the power of you is overwhelming and delightful.