Jesse James: Child Abuse Made Me Cheat on Sandra Bullock

Jesse James says his father's physical and emotional abuse when he was a child led him to cheating on his Oscar-winning wife, Sandra Bullock.

"He beat my ass pretty good a bunch of times...I just remember, like, clinched teeth, strained-neck look on his face," James told ABC News' Nightline in an interview that aired Tuesday night. "My whole childhood, I never had a chance to be a kid. ...I was always scared."

"I was petrified of my dad ... It wasn't so much getting the sh-- beat out of me or getting my arm broken or getting kicked or whatever or punched, it was the in-between time. It was the fear of that happening again," he added.