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10 Celebrities Who Suffered Child Abuse

10 Celebrities Who Suffered Child Abuse

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With their celebrity status, it seems hard to believe these highly successful people could ever have been victims of abuse. But everyone is vulnerable as a child. Here are 10 celebrities who say they suffered child abuse.

wikipedia.org
wikipedia.org

Christina Aguilera

Aguilera said in a Daily Mail interview that she saw a lot of “pushing and shoving and fighting and quarreling” growing up with her siblings at the hands of her Army-sergeant father. In one incident, 4-year-old Aguilera was left with a bloody face because she was making too much noise. “Growing up I did not feel safe,” she said. “Feeling powerless is the worst feeling in the world. I turned to singing as an outlet. The pain at home is where my love for music came from.”

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

wikipedia.org
wikipedia.org

Janice Dickinson

Dickinson, considered by many to be the very first supermodel, told Dr Drew that she’s been recovering several memories of child abuse. Dickinson has said her father had rage issues and that he subjected her to emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Dickinson said in one interview that she might have unintentionally killed her father by destroying his heart medication. Dickinson opened her own modeling agency in 2005, the subject of a reality TV show, “The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency.” She appeared on four seasons of “America’s Next Top Model.”

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

wikimedia.org
wikimedia.org

 

Jewel

Country singer Jewel had a turbulent relationship with her father growing up, and said in her second book, “Chasing Down the Dawn,” that her father had been occasionally mentally and physically abusive, but she wants readers to know she and her father have since patched up their relationship.  “I am proud of how my dad and I have handled it; of the understanding and healing,” she said. They now have a warm relationship. “My dad read it all before it came out,” she said of the book. “He was really glad to know that I didn’t hold it against him. It’s not an angry or ‘poor me’ piece. It’s about resolution.”

Source: People.com

wikipedia.org
wikipedia.org

Chevy Chase

The comedic actor and former “Saturday Night Live” cast member suffered physical and mental abuse as a child. In his biography “I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not,” he said he would be woken up in the middle of the night and slapped across the face and that he was often locked in closets for hours as punishment.

Source: Today.com

wikimedia.org
wikimedia.org

 

Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton’s alcoholic father physically abused him as a child, a fact that Hillary Clinton said explains his infidelity. Hillary has suggested that Bill’s mother allowed the abuse to take place, and that’s what led to Bill having issues with sex addiction.

Source:NyDailyNews.com

wikipedia.org
wikipedia.org

 

Drew Barrymore

The “Blended” star had an alcoholic father who abandoned her and her mother when she was a baby. Her mother Jaid, also an actress, would drag Barrymore to nightclubs when she was just 8 years old and Drew has described her relationship with her mother as her “greatest battle.” A child star, Drew said she grew up in a family that was “multifaceted, sexually oriented, and pretty much open to everything.” School was tough for her because people knew her from films, she said. “I was the fat child who got beaten up every day.” In her autobiography “Little Girl Lost,” published when she was 14, she wrote, “I had my first drink at age 9, began smoking marijuana at 10 and at 12 took up cocaine.” By 13 she was in rehab. At 15 Drew petitioned for and was granted legal emancipation from her parents.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk

en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org

Rosie O’Donnell

The comedic actress and former host of “The View” said in her book, “Celebrity Detox” that she used to break her own limbs as a child because it was “proof I had some value, enough to be fixed.” Her mother died when she was 10. “There were many benefits to having a cast. In the middle of the night, it was a weapon,” she said, according to a FoxNews interview. Why she would need a weapon in the middle of the night was not addressed.

Source: Foxnews.com

wikimedia.org
wikimedia.org

Eleanor Roosevelt

Roosevelt had an abusive father who died of alcoholism when she was still young, and a mother who would criticize Roosevelt for being “plain.” Some historians of Roosevelt’s life believe she was abused by the governess she went to live with after both her parents died. Eleanor said she felt “desperately afraid” of her governess.

Source: Hnn.us

wikipedia.org
wikipedia.org

Roseanne Barr

The standup comedian and one of the hosts of “Last Comic Standing” has said she was a victim of incest. Barr opened up during a speech at a Denver, Colorado church, saying she’d suppressed memories of sexual abuse from both her mother and father.

Source: People.com

wikipedia.org
wikipedia.org

Carlos Santana

The rock legend who brought us “Evil Ways” has confessed that he was molested by an older man as a child. The man seduced Santana by bringing him from Mexico into the U.S. and buying him toys. Santana only woke up to what was happening when the man slapped him for falling in love with a girl.

Source: Nydailynews.com