Overview
- In a New York Times interview this week, Theron gives her most detailed account yet of the 1991 shooting at her family home in South Africa.
- She says her father, drunk and armed, forced his way in, fired through a bedroom door where she and her mother hid, and was then shot as he went to get more guns.
- Theron describes years of fear and verbal abuse tied to her father's alcoholism, followed by tense stretches of silence after fights that left the house quiet and isolating.
- For years after the killing, she told people her father died in a car crash, saying she felt deep shame and wanted to avoid pity.
- Theron says the event no longer haunts her and that speaking out can ease others' isolation, and some outlets report authorities later deemed the shooting self-defense with no charges filed.