During a recent TV appearance on The Daily Helpline, actress Tisha Campbell-Martin revealed for the first time that she was raped at the age of 3. Campbell-Martin’s admission came as she was giving advice to a young woman who had also been raped.
“You can no longer be a victim, you have to be victorious at this point. You can’t play the victim because at this point, I’m not saying this to put you down or anything. What I’m saying is that he is winning, and you are allowing him to win. You are making a conscious decision to harm yourself, to hurt yourself and allow this person to still have dominion over your life. You can’t do that anymore,” Campbell-Martin told the young woman.
The Martin actress also shared why she was telling her own story about rape.
“The reason why I can absolutely say this to you without judgment or anything else, and this is the first time I ever said this on camera in front of millions, national, people, is that I too have been a victim of the same thing. When I was 3 I was raped, by an older person. Now I knew as a child I did nothing wrong and that this wasn’t my fault, but I found forgiveness in the guilt that I might’ve had,” Campbell-Martin stated.
The Daily Helpline is a nationally syndicated talk show that features therapy experts who answer questions from callers, tweeters, social media followers, in-studio audience members and guests. It covers topics ranging from relationships to addiction, health, trauma and grief counseling.
Yesha Callahan is editor of The Grapevine and a staff writer at The Root. Follow her on Twitter.
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