Charlize Theron wants to speak about her experiences with “family violence” in order to help others who are going through similar struggles.
The 44-year-old South African-born Hollywood actress grew up in an “unhealthy” environment which saw her mother kill her father in an act of self-defence, and she has now said she is “not ashamed” to talk about the harrowing incident, because she wants to raise awareness for domestic violence.
She said: "This family violence, this kind of violence that happens within the family, is something that I share with a lot of people. I'm not ashamed to talk about it, because I do think that the more we talk about these things, the more we realise we are not alone in any of it. I think, for me, it's just always been that this story really is about growing up with addicts and what that does to a person.”
Charlize also opened up about the incident, as she explained her “alcoholic” father had fired three shots at Charlize and her mother, and whilst neither of them were hit by the bullets, her mother acted in self-defence to “end the threat”.
The ‘Bombshell’ star recalled: "My father was a very sick man. My father was an alcoholic all my life. I only knew him one way, and that was as an alcoholic ... It was a pretty hopeless situation. Our family was just kind of stuck in it. And the day-to-day unpredictability of living with an addict is the thing that you sit with and have embedded in your body for the rest of your life, more than just this one event of what happened one night.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Charlize Theron(@charlizeafrica) on Feb 14, 2014 at 4:42pm PST
"I think our family was an incredibly unhealthy one. And all of it, I think, scarred us in a way. Of course, I wish what happened that night would have never happened. It’s, unfortunately, what happens when you don't get to the root of these issues.”
Charlize now has two children of her own - August and Jackson - whom she adopted as a single parent, and wants to end the stigma around unconventional families.