John Stamos claims he was sexually abused as a child by babysitter
Full House actor John Stamos has alleged he was sexually abused as a child by his babysitter.
Stamos made the claim in his upcoming memoir If You Would Have Told Me, set for release on October 20th. The actor alleges the abuse occurred when he was around the age of 10, but as a child, he didn’t tell anyone about the alleged incident.
“It was like you’re playing dead so they’ll stop. But it wasn’t totally aggressive … I don’t know, it was not good,” he remarked in a new interview with People. “I shouldn’t have had to deal with those feelings,” he added.
The actor claimed, “it took me writing a book” for the full weight of the incident to sink in. Noting, “I mean, I knew, it was always in the back, and I do so much advocacy for the [survivors]. I felt like I remembered it slightly. It has always been there, but I packed it away as people do, right?”
Stamos also revealed he almost previously came forward to speak about the alleged incident when he received an award for his work helping abused children but ultimately chose against including it in his speech.
He said: “I started to write it, and that’s when it really came out. And then I thought, ‘No, tonight is not about me. It’s about the kids. I’m going to pack it away until the right moment … Otherwise, I’m a phoney fuck.”
Stamos doesn’t want the alleged incident to dominate his memoir and only devoted “a page or something” to it. However, he did state, “I’ll tell you, if I found out someone was doing that to my son, that’s a totally different story.”
For help, advice or more information regarding sexual harassment, assault and rape in the UK, visit the Rape Crisis charity website. In the US, visit RAINN.
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