In a desperate bid to do the right thing, Teri Hatcher went public with a dark truth from her childhood.
The actress has revealed to Vanity Fair that she was sexually molested by an uncle 35 years ago, but kept the abuse a secret until recently.
In the magazine’s cover story, on newsstands Friday, Hatcher, 41, said she learned in 2002 that a 14-year-old victim of her uncle, Richard Hayes Stone, had committed suicide by shooting herself and that Stone had been arrested and charged with three counts of molestation.
Stone had admitted to sharing a passionate kiss with the victim, Sarah Van Cleemput, the daughter of a neighbor. However, though prosecutors believed he had abused at least three other girls, they were having trouble collecting evidence in the case.
Worried that Stone might escape molestation charges, Hatcher made the decision to tell the prosecutors her own story of sexual abuse, despite fears that her claims might be viewed as a bid for attention from a washed-up actress trying to revive her career.
“Here’s what I anticipated,” she said. “He did this, he gets off, and Teri ends up on the cover of a tabloid.”
But Hatcher could not stop thinking about the young girl who ended her life after Stone’s abuse, and admitted she identified with the girl’s final act.
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