Mr Motivator said he was tied up by a gang armed with guns and knives during a terrifying robbery.
The 69-year-old fitness legend spoke about the ordeal during an interview on the Celebrity Catch Up: Life After That Thing I Did podcast, saying he had learned important lessons from the incident, after he was left feeling “helpless”.
While hosting friends at his home in Jamaica in 2007, he said a gang of eight people ran into the property, armed with a gun, machetes and knives, while they were eating dinner.
“The first thing they did was tie us up and put us on the floor,” Motivator explained, as he said he was concerned for the safety of his wife Sandra, and their children, who were also caught up in the robbery.
“The most upsetting thing for any father is you don’t like feeling helpless and hopeless. I remember my daughter saying ‘dad why are these men doing this?’,” he sadly shared.
He said he was marched upstairs to open the safe - after he refused to let the gang take his wife Sandra - and they escaped with money and jewellery.
“They got away and I got myself free and loosened everybody up - [it was] traumatic,” he said.
Motivator said one of the thieves was later found killed, and was left stunned when he realised one of the armed gang was a builder who had worked on his house the year before.
“Let people earn your trust before you let them in,” he said of the valuable lessons he’s learned since the incident. “Sometimes we’re too trusting and the very people we trust can be the people that let us down.”
He also revealed his wife Sandra had managed to secretly save one of her most prized possessions - her engagement ring - by hiding it in her mouth during the ordeal.
“I thought we’d lost it, but that wife of mine is so clever - she put it in her mouth without anybody knowing so they didn’t get it!” he laughed.
Listen to the full interview with Mr Motivator on Celebrity Catch Up: Life After That Thing I Did, which is available now.
