Charlize Theron Opens Up About The Night Her Mother Killed Her Father

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Charlize Theron Says She’s Not Ashamed To Talk About Her Mother Killing Her Father

Charlize Theron knows childhood trauma all too well.

When the star was only 15-years-old, her father drunkenly shot at both her and her mother–which led to Theron’s mom killing her husband in self-defense. Now, the Bombshell actress is opening up about that fateful night.

“My father was so drunk that he shouldn’t have been able to walk when he came into the house with a gun,” Charlize explained in an interview with NPR. “My mom and I were in my bedroom leaning against the door because he was trying to push through the door. 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,” Theron continued. “But in self-defense, she ended the threat,” the actress said, explaining why no charges were ever brought against her mother, Gerda.

Obviously, such an insane moment left a huge impact on the actress, who emphasized just how many other people share similar stories of family violence. That’s why she decided to open up about the encounter.

“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,” she explained. “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.”

She also spoke on how she saw her father before his death, calling him a “very sick man.”

“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. 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.”