LOS ANGELES, CA - SEPTEMBER 15: Jeannie Mai attends FIJI Water at Entertainment Weekly Pre-Emmy Party on September 15, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for FIJI Water ) (2018 Getty Images)
Amid the alleged sexual assault claims against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Jeannie Mai revealed why she stayed silent about being sexually abused as a child.
On Monday’s episode of “The Real,” 39-year-old Mai revealed she was sexually abused by a family member for four years beginning when she was just 9 years old.
“As a person who was sexually assaulted at a young age by somebody very close to me, I remember the trifecta that I would continuously process which is: fear, anger, shame, fear, anger, shame. Fear: What’s going to happen to our family if I say something and out this person? Anger: Why did you just sit there? Why did you let this go on for four years? What’s wrong with you?” she said.
Mai explained she didn’t tell anyone because her abuser was someone she cared about and loved.
“There’s a little bit of a Stockholm Syndrome in there too because if somebody who’s a stranger did it to me, oh I know what to do. I know how to wile out, I got that down, but when it’s somebody you trust, somebody you know that you actually are supposed to love or believe in, you just freeze.”
She said she spoke up about it two years after the assaults ended.
“But if it took me two years or it took me 20 years, it does not invalidate what happened to me,” Mai said.
This article originally appeared in Page Six.
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