Charlize Theron is not ashamed to talk about her family’s troubled past.
In a candid new interview with NPR.org, the Bombshell star bravely recalled the night when her mother, Gerda Maritz, shot and killed her father, Charles Theron, in self-defense at their home in South Africa when she was only 15 years old.
(We’d like to issue a gentle trigger warning at this time for any of our readers who might be sensitive to this story.)
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The Oscar-winning actress’ mom was literally backed into a corner on one fateful night in 1991 when her dad came home overly intoxicated with a firearm, ready to start trouble. Theron explained:
“My father was so drunk that he shouldn’t have been able to walk when he came into the house with a gun. My mom and I were in my bedroom leaning against the door because he was trying to push through the door.”
Charlize described what happened next during their familial spat as nothing short of a miracle:
“So both of us were leaning against the door from the inside to have him not be able to push through. He took a step back and just shot through the door three times. None of the bullets ever hit us, which is just a miracle.”
In a moment of quick thinking to save both of their lives, Maritz retrieved a handgun stored nearby and fatally shot her husband.
The move was done in self-defense which is why no criminal charges were ever brought against Gerda.
However, the traumatic experience certainly had long-lasting effects on the South African movie star — and has compelled her to speak out about it in hopes of encouraging others who might be suffering in silence:
“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 realize we are not alone in any of it.”
The 44-year-old described the patriarch as a “very sick man” who struggled with alcoholism for as long as she could remember. She added:
“I think, for me, it’s just always been that this story is about growing up with addicts and what that does to a person. 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.”
The Atomic Blonde star continued:
“And the day-to-day unpredictability of living with an addict is the thing that you sit with and have kind of embedded in your body for the rest of your life, more than just this one event of what happened one night.”
How incredibly heartbreaking.
For our readers who may not know, this isn’t the first time the momma of two has opened up about that terrifying night before. In conversation with Howard Stern back in 2017, Theron admitted she used to avoid dealing with the painful memory by telling her childhood friends her dad died in a car accident instead.
But these days, Charlize chooses to stand by the truth of what happened and hopes others can find strength in her family’s tragic story:
“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.”
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
[Image via Ivan Nikolov/WENN]
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