Sharing Their Stories: Stars Who Survived Abuse

Over the years, many Hollywood stars have bravely come forward with their experiences of abuse — whether they be survivors of domestic abuse, sexual abuse, child abuse or another form of torment.

“It would start with tickling my back and then go into things that were extremely uncomfortable,” Jessica Simpson detailed being sexually abused as a child in her 2020 memoir, Open Book. “I wanted to tell my parents. I was the victim but somehow I felt in the wrong.”

She added: “We never stayed at my parents’ friends’ house again but we also didn’t talk about what I had said.”

Simpson later confronted her alleged attacker, revealing that she eventually forgave them.

“I would say about eight years ago I confronted her,” the Newlyweds alum said during a July 2020 appearance on the “Gift of Forgiveness” podcast. “I went to her and I just said, ‘I know you know what was going on and I know that you were being abused,’ ‘cause she was being abused by an older guy. And basically, and he was always there at the house as well — he never touched me, but he would abuse her and then she would come to me and do the stuff to me — and so in so many ways I felt bad for her and I was allowing the abuse to happen.”

Former Bachelorette Clare Crawley has also been candid about surviving abuse.

“I grew up going to a Catholic school and I was the victim of a predator,” the California-based hairstylist revealed during a September 2021 appearance on Red Table Talk: The Estefans. “My parents looked at Catholic priests as — they held them on a pedestal.”

Crawley, who briefly served as the season 16 lead of The Bachelorette, added: “My parents did the best they could and reached out for the resources they could at the time and sent me to this priest. I don’t think there was any counseling that was done. It was a one-on-one time to be a predator.”

Scroll down to read the accounts of famous survivors such as Tyra Banks, Jessica Simpson and Mary J. Blige.

If you or someone you know are experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support. If you have experienced sexual assault, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 for confidential support. To report child abuse, consult the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Child Welfare Information Gateway for state-specific reporting phone numbers.

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