Angela Bassett is opening up about her own experience with sexual molestation as a child.
The actress recently revealed that when she was a pre-teen, her mother’s boyfriend entered her room in the middle of the night while she was sleeping and started to fondle her breasts.
“Fortunately, it wasn’t a complete assault, it was fondling, but it was devastating enough for a child who’s 12 or 13,” Bassett said at the Rape Foundation’s annual brunch this past weekend in Santa Monica, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Luckily, her mother believed Bassett when she finally told her and took swift action.
”Thankfully, to have a mother who could tell as soon as light broke that this happened and for her to expel him [meant a lot],” Bassett continued. “That she heard me, believed me, and did something about it, I think was so empowering for me as a young teen, as a young woman.”
Today, Bassett is a mother to teenage twins, Bronwyn and Slater Vance, with husband Courtney B. Vance. And she says that teaching her children boundaries early was important to her.
“You just want them to be aware,” Bassett said. “They’ll be in situations one day, and when a girl says no, both to him and to her, she means no.”
