Magnotta was born Eric Clinton Kirk Newman[13] on July 24, 1982, in Scarborough, Ontario, the son of Anna Yourkin and Donald Newman. He was the first of their three children.[14] According to him, his mother was obsessed with cleanliness, would routinely lock her children out of the house, and once put her children's pet rabbits out in the cold to freeze to death. His father was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1994,[14] after which he divorced Magnotta's mother, leading Magnotta to move in with his grandmother, Phyllis.[13]