Marcus Mumford reveals he was sexually abused as a child
Marcus Mumford of the folk group Mumford & Sons has revealed that he was the victim of sexual abuse as a child in a recent interview. The singer has also boldly laid bare his experiences in a new single ‘Cannibal’.
“Like lots of people – and I’m learning more and more about this as we go and as I play it to people – I was sexually abused as a child,” Mumford told GQ Magazine. “Not by family and not in the church, which might be some people’s assumption. But I hadn’t told anyone about it for 30 years.”
The single in question documents the shocking traumatic details with the verse: “I can taste you and I hate it / That wasn’t a choice in the mind of a child and you knew it / You took the first slice of me and you ate it raw / Ripped it in with your teeth and your lips like a cannibal / you fucking animal.”
However, in speaking out, Mumford claims that he has been able to purge the trauma somewhat and that the song itself has been a great gift of catharsis to him. Hopefully, it can also provide relief for other victims of abuse.
Mumford himself had suppressed the abuse he suffered when he was six years old until a bout of depression forced him to see a therapist who specialised in trauma after his band’s 2018 tour. In their second session, they discussed his childhood, and he threw up.
“Apparently, it’s very common,” Mumford explained, “once you basically unhook the denial and start the process of removing some suppression, then it’s very natural for that stuff to come out. I’d had problems breathing all my life. Not asthma but just, like, catching my breath.”
Mumford continued that he was six when he began to suffer the “unhealthy sexual experiences at a really early age. And for some reason, and I can’t really understand why, I didn’t become a perpetrator of sexual abuse – although I’ve done my fair share of c–tish behaviour.”
In the subsequent years, he buried the incidents under “layers of shame” and found that this trauma and suppression actually had an impact on his character. However, with therapy and opening up, he feels he has been able to lift some of this burden.
“Now,” he said. “being able to pick those apart a little bit and, like, chip away at the layers of it is why I feel kind of free, more free than I have in a long time.”
‘Cannibal’ is the first single from Marcus Mumford’s new solo album, Self-Titled, which is due for release on September 16th.
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