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Charlize Theron Shares New Details of Night Her Mother Shot Her Father in Self-Defense

Her candid account seeks to use her fame to reach people living with domestic abuse.

Overview

  • Theron recounts in a recent interview the tense hours before her mother killed her father in self-defense when she was 15 in South Africa.
  • She describes a home fitted with metal security doors and says her father came home drunk with his brother, fired through the front door, and threatened to kill them.
  • Theron says she and her mother braced her bedroom door as shots came through it and heard clear threats to their lives.
  • She says her mother grabbed a gun and shot her father as he tried to access more weapons, and a ricocheted shot injured her uncle’s hand.
  • Theron now speaks openly to support survivors and backs anti-violence and HIV prevention work through her UN Messenger of Peace role and her Africa Outreach Project.