Charlize Theron Opens Up About the Night Her Mother Shot & Killed Her Father in Self-Defense
Charlize Theron has been through a lot, y’all.
The Oscar winner and Bombshell star opened up about the night her mother killed her father in self-defense. While speaking to NPR, the actress spoke about her father Charles Theron, who drunkenly threatened her and her mother, Gerda, in June 1991 with a gun when she was 15.
“My father was so drunk that he shouldn’t have been able to walk when he came into the house with a gun,” Charlize said. “My mom and I were in my bedroom leaning against the door because he was trying to push through the door.”
She continued, “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,” she added.
To save her daughter and herself, Gerda shot her husband: “But in self-defense, she ended the threat,” the actress said.
No charges were brought against Gerda, but still, the night impacted Charlize for a long time.
“This family violence, this kind of violence that happens within the family, is something that I share with a lot of people,” she said. “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. 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,” she said of her dad. “It was a pretty hopeless situation. Our family was just kind of stuck in it. 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.”
What a huge thing to overcome. Thankfully, Charlize has used the experience to make her stronger. We love you, Charlize.