Oscar De La Hoya's Children Open Up About Estrangement, He Calls Himself a 'Coward' for Not Being There

In Part 2 of his Max documentary The Golden Boy, the legendary fighter's three eldest children -- Jacob, Atiana and Devon -- all open up about their complicated relationships with their dad, who was absent for a good chunk of their lives.

De La Hoya shares Atiana, 24, with ex-wife Shanna Moakler, while son Devon, also 24, was the result of a one night stand with Angelique McQueen. Oscar also welcomed son Jacob, now 25, in 1998 with then-girlfriend Toni Alvarado. Shortly after their births, he moved to Puerto Rico with Millie Corretjer, with whom he had three more kids.

On the doc, De La Hoya admitting that while he knew being a father was "a huge responsibility," he "didn't know how to do it" and "didn't know how to be a parent."

"I would only see him every so often, maybe, like, once a year," Atiana recalled. "And I remember -- I think it might have been fourth grade or something -- and we were supposed to get dinner and then go to Color Me Mine because I loved art. And I remember trying to think of, like, what I would say. Like, 'Am I gonna call him dad?' And I remember going to Color Me Mine and he painted, like, a cheeseburger and I had the cheeseburger in my room for like ... it's probably still somewhere, to be honest."

"I think a lot of people knew him better than I did because they watched his career," she continued. "So my idea of him wasn't necessarily from our relationship, but it was more from who I was told he was."

Son Jacob had a similar relationship with his father, recalling that Oscar brought him to Chuck E. Cheese when he was either 7 or 8 years old, before he would "disappear for a couple years." Though Jacob said his dad "supported me financially" and paid for his education, "other than that he wasn't that parent figure."

"I remember going to Big Bear a few times because he used to train up there," he continued, saying that while there he'd be introduced to his half-siblings De La Hoya shared with Corretjer. According to Jacob, it was Millie who "wanted to bring everyone closer and have that relationship with their father," but it wasn't an easy task.

"I probably felt some pain or anger, sadness probably. My dad, he's not the biggest communicator," he continued. "Your feelings were your feelings, they don't mean anything, you move on and you get over it."

Oscar admitted that after he moved to Puerto Rico, he "left it up to the mothers" of the other children "to take care of them." He said that he didn't even tell his then-wife about Devon, claiming she found out about his existence from "a gossip magazine" and was "pissed" about the revelation. "It wasn't a pleasant conversation," he added.

As for Devon, he said that for most of his life, his father was nothing more than "the guy on TV, the guy on my YouTube."

"He raised me through a screen, almost," said Devon. "It's just hard, you're hanging out with your other children, why not me? Kids would say I'm just some rotten, spoiled kid whose father is Oscar De La Hoya, you have everything you want in this world, I had nothing."

Devon said he got into boxing himself to feel some connection with his absent father, who he said "knew nothing about me" and left him wondering what was holding his dad back from trying to foster a relationship between them.

"Devon was living in Vegas for a while, time just goes by and it just turned messy," De La Hoya said, explaining himself, "and then I'm just like, f---k, I go back and focus on the one thing that makes me happy and that's being in the ring and f---ing fighting. Inside the ring, I felt powerful."

When Devon was 16, he reached out to his father through Instagram to try and spark conversation.

"I said, 'Hey, now's the time, I'm grown enough to understand. Let's just both be the bigger man and get this over with,'" recalled Devon. "I met him when I was 16. We planned this dinner that night, long dinner table in the back, private room. I remember just thinking in my head, 'What am I gonna say? What is he gonna say?' Waiting, waiting, waiting, didn't want to order food and he came through the back door. I saw him and I just started balling."

Oscar recalled seeing how much "f---ing pain" was in his son's eyes when they first met up, saying, "the pain that I caused, that killed me." Devon said that while he wanted to hug his father, he also "wanted to f---ing punch him in the face" at the same time; instead, he "just held him as hard as I could" and "couldn't let do."

"That's the one thing I regret the most, is not being there for him as a kid," said the boxer. "I'm here now."

The three children eventually became quite close, meeting for the first time during a trip to Texas for one of Oscar's fights. According to Devon and Atiana, their father actually purchased seats next to one another for the flight to Texas, before they were put in adjoining rooms at the hotel. "Why would you sit us on a plane next to each other for us to meet for the first time?" asked Atiana in the doc, reflecting on their very unusual introduction to one another.

"Looking at it now, we've all been struggling with the same things, which is something we can relate on," said Jacob. "We, more than our dad, look out for each other."

Now, Devon works with his father at Golden Boy Promotions -- adding that while their relationship "has gotten better," it's still not without its complications. "Nobody is perfect," he said, as the kids also addressed his drinking issues and late-night Instagram Lives -- something they called "embarrassing."

"There's no one in his life that's going to say no to him. We are the only people that can do that," said Atiana. Added Devon: "He was like, you know what, I'm glad you told me because I needed it."

"Then the dinner was kind of awkward after that and then our relationships got a little bit rocky," Jacob continued. "At that point, don't you just bite the bullet and take the drinking at 3am to have a relationship with him or tell him to stop and then he doesn't talk to you for a few months?"

Atiana added that their father has "asked for forgiveness" and "also made it clear that he's going to try to do better," something she felt was "the best thing you can ask for."

"I was a coward. I kept on giving myself excuses. But the bottom line is, I wasn't there for them, I wasn't a father," admitted De La Hoya, who believed his mother -- had she been alive -- would have set him straight when it came to his priorities. "It would have been different if she was here," he added.