Luke Evans left the Jehovah’s Witness faith at 16 (Picture: WireImage)

Luke Evans has revealed he didn’t have a birthday until he was 18 after growing up a Jehovah’s Witness and still finds the whole thing strange.

The actor, 40, revealed that he left the faith at 16, and the first time he celebrated a birthday was a could of years later.

He told Jessie Ware on her Table Manners podcast: ‘I was brought up as a Jehovah’s Witness. I’m not one anymore but my parents are… I was a Jehovah’s Witness for 16 years.

‘My first birthday was when I was 18 and I had so much guilt! Even though I hadn’t been a Witness for over two years, I just thought this is weird and that this feels so strange.




‘It was the same with Christmas and Easter.’

Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t celebrate birthdays or holidays that honour people who aren’t Jesus, and they also don’t celebrate Christmas and Easter as they believe the symbols including lights and Christmas trees have pagan origins.

Revealing what it was like growing up in the religion, Luke recalls a lot of public speaking: ‘Every couple weeks you’d get a letter saying you’d have to go up to the front and tell everyone what the religion meant to you.

‘And you’d effectively have to write your own script and then stand up in front of 200 people on a Thursday night or a Sunday and you’d have to speak to them and learn how to present yourself.

‘And then you’d be critiqued, where they’d tell you you need to work on empathy or illustration or gestures, it was all very specific.’

He added: ‘In a way I would never say that any of that upbringing had any detrimental effect on what I ended up doing and you know, having a door slammed in your face which happened regularly on the door-to-door work was great prep on getting a thick skin when becoming an actor.’

Luke eventually left the faith when he decided to move into Cardiff rather than the small village he was raised in.

He revealed how his parents reacted to him leaving the faith and the family home at such a young age: ‘I think they were a little worried when I left as I was 16, I was 16 when I left home.’

The Fast & Furious star added: ‘I just wanted to get out. I felt like I was ready and I was just itching to get along with my life so I moved to Cardiff.

‘And I’m an only child too, you know, but they always knew I was very ambitious, very driven and very opinionated and I always felt like I never really fitted into the Valley life. I love Wales but it really never felt like me.’

He added that his parents supported his choice to become an actor, even though it wasn’t necessarily what they’d have wanted him to do: ‘My Mum and Dad have always looked at me and thought “he’s going to do his own thing whether we support him or not”.



‘But they’ve always supported me, even though I probably wasn’t what they would’ve wanted. They would have wanted me to stay in the religion, they would have wanted me to be devoted.’

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