Cuban-American superstar Gloria Estefan revealed that she had been sexually abused at the age of nine, while ‘Bachelorette’ Clare Crawley admitted a Catholic priest was her molester.
In Thursday’s Facebook Watch show “Red Table Talk: The Estefans” the “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” singer admitted publicly for the first time that she was abused by her music teacher as a child.
In the episode, which was titled, “Betrayed By Trusted Adults,” Estefan held hands with her daughter and niece as she stated the fact: “93% of abused children know and trust their abusers, and I know this, because I was one of them.”
She didn’t name the man that sexually exploited her but described how it started out slowly and the way she tried to put an end to it.
“I told him, ‘This cannot happen, you cannot do this.’ He goes: ‘Your father’s in Vietnam, your mother’s alone and I will kill her if you tell her,’” Estefan commented. “And I knew it was crazy, because at no point did I ever think that it was because of me that this was happening. I knew the man was insane and that’s why I thought he might actually hurt my mother.”
She said that the stress caused her to eventually confess to her mother. “I couldn’t take it anymore.” Her mom called the police, but was advised not to press charges because testifying would be too traumatic for a child.
On the same show, Season 16 ‘Bachelorette’ Clare Crawley revealed that her childhood abuser was a Catholic priest that her parents sent her to for counseling at school.
“I grew up going to a Catholic school and I was the victim of a predator,” she said. “My parents looked at Catholic priests as — they held them on a pedestal.”
“How could you not trust a priest?” A shocked Estefan asked.
“My parents did the best they could and reached out for the resources they could at the time and sent me to this priest,” Crawley explained. “I don’t think there was any counseling that was done. It was a one-on-one time to be a predator.”
wpDiscuz