Gabby Douglas, who made history last week by becoming the first African-American to win the women's gymnastics all-around gold Olympic medal, has revealed the struggle her family went through due to her father being absent in her life as she grew up.

The absence of her father put extreme strain on her mother raising Gabby and three other kids by herself. The family suffered intense financial hardships, but through everything Gabby was still able to come through to astonishingly become an Olympic gold medalist.

Douglas has explained that her father, Air Force Staff Sergeant Timothy Douglas, left their family when she was young, leaving her mother to raise their four children as a lone mother.

"It was really hard for us growing up- my dad had left us, so he wasn't really in the picture anymore,"Douglas said, according to the Daily Mail. "So my mom had to front all these bills. My dad didn't really pay the child support. He was short [on money]. It was definitely hard on her part, and she had to take care of me and the rest of my siblings."

At the London 2012 Olympics Gabby has stunned the gymnastics world by winning two gold medals.

In the build up to the Olympics, Gabby's father suddenly showed up at her U.S. Olympic trials in June. Douglas' father was seen in the crowd holding a banner that read "Go Gabby Douglas, Love, Dad."

His cheering for his daughter caught her attention.

Douglas said, "I'm like, 'Who's calling my name?' And then I look up. It was my dad and his friend, and I haven't seen him in a while. They were holding up the flag. And I almost felt like bawling. I was like, 'Oh, my gosh, Dad!" according to The Des Moines Register.

"I just missed her so much," Timothy Douglas told the paper. "It's just so thrilling what's going on."

During the uneven bar event on Monday, Douglas failed to maintain the intensity of performance and concentration from the first week of the Olympics that gained her two golds. After a strong uneven bar performance that secured her the all-around gold, she was expected to have a good showing, but a big mistake saw her eventually finish in last place.

On the balance beam on Tuesday she also failed to capture a third gold medal. She lost her footing and fell from t he beam in a dramatic end to her Olympic performances this year.

"Toward the end of the Olympics, you get physically tired and drained. And no matter how much rest you have, your body is tired," she told reporters after the uneven bar final. "I made a little mistake, but I'm human ... I don't know, you just get to mentally, you're just so tired," Douglas said.

Despite her recent failings Douglas has had a fantastic Games and her past two days shouldn't take away from what she has achieved in London. She has made history with her two gold medals which will see her claim her place in U.S. Olympic history.