Queen Latifah Reveals She Was Sexually Abused As A Child

 

Queen Latifah opens up in the July issue of Essence Magazine about how she was sexually abused as a child.

In the issue she reveals she was abused by a teenage boy who was put in charge of her:  “He violated me.  I never told anybody; I just buried it as deeply as I could and kept people at an arm’s distance. I never really let a person get too close to me. I could have been married years ago, but I had a commitment issue.”

And she adds she didn’t tell anyone untill the death of her brother when she was 22 years old: “I had to get it off my chest. My mother felt terrible. She was kind of a country girl, so she wasn’t up on how slick people could be. When I told my dad, he said nothing.”

She says that for many years she blamed herself for the sexual abuse she endured but after speaking with her therapist she was finally ok with it: “I was a kid, and I had no power or control over the situation. I really wish I’d had the strength and the knowledge to say something sooner, because I always wondered, Did he do that to someone else? But I accept that the time for action has come and gone.”

For more on Queen Latifah check out the latest issue of Essence magazine, which hits stands on June 12.