Mike Tyson 'torn apart' by daughter's death

Mike Tyson was "torn apart" by the death of his four-year-old daughter.

The former heavyweight world champion boxer was left devastated when little Exodus - whose mother was the sportsman's second wife Monica Turner - died in a horrific accident in May 2009 after a cord from a treadmill became wrapped around her neck and while he wanted to deal with the situation with anger, he was humbled by the reactions of other parents in the same situation.

He said: "I had a four-year-old daughter who, unfortunately, had an accident and died. I was pretty outraged, torn apart. When I went to the hospital when she was on the machine, I was anticipating, because I was probably coming down from a hangover, but I'm anticipating that I'm going to go to the hospital and raise hell.'

"Once I got there and saw other people who had children who already died or were dying, they were handling it with dignity and I didn't want to be the psycho parent. I wanted to handle it with dignity as well. Their kids were dying too so I didn't have any right to be a psycho. I just had to handle it like everyone else and be humble and be at ease."

Mike - who became a father for the eighth time in January after wife Lakiha Spicer Tyson gave birth to their son Morocco - says the tragic incident helped him get sober but says he couldn't have done without the support of his friends and family.

The 44-year-old sportsman told US TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres: "I'm just very fortunate that I had a great support system. That I had great mentors. I was just very fortunate. I'm not better than anyone else that was successful and probably OD'd or committed suicide. I'm not different than them.

"The only difference is that I had a good support system... I wanted to change. I couldn't do it without the support."