Charlize Theron reflects on ‘trauma’ of her mother fatally shooting her father in self-defence
Charlize Theron has recalled the “trauma” of her mother shooting her father in self-defence as she discussed her gender-based violence advocacy.
The life-changing incident happened in 1991, when the Oscar winner’s father, Charles, threatened Theron, who was 15 at the time, and her mother, Gerda.
Reflecting on the event which inspired her to set up her foundation, the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project, the Mad Max: Fury star, 48, told Town & Country magazine: “I would say this: It’s a simple correlation to make.
“But I think it’s way more complicated than having just one night of trauma in your life.
“With or without that, gender-based violence is so in your face in South Africa and globally. It’s hard to not be aware of these things just purely by being a woman.”
Theron previously discussed the events that led to that incident and told NPR in 2019: “My father was so drunk that he shouldn’t have been able to walk when he came into the house with a gun.
“My mom and I were in my bedroom leaning against the door because he was trying to push through the door.
“So, both of us were leaning against the door from the inside to have him not be able to push through. He took a step back and just shot through the door three times.
“None of the bullets ever hit us, which is just a miracle.”
Gerda grabbed her own handgun, opened fire in retaliation, and killed her husband in front of her teenage daughter.
After an investigation, the 1991 shooting was found to have been in self-defence, and her mother did not face any charges.
Describing her father, who had been an alcoholic her whole life, as a “very sick man”, she recalled: “I only knew him one way, and that was as an alcoholic. It was a pretty hopeless situation.
“Our family was just kind of stuck in it.
“And the day-to-day unpredictability of living with an addict is the thing that you sit with and have kind of embedded in your body for the rest of your life, more than just this one event of what happened one night.”
In 2020, Theron’s foundation co-launched the #TogetherForHer initiative to advocate for victims and survivors of pandemic-era violence worldwide.
