“I’m past it but it still hurts because it ruined my life. I spent the rest of my time trying to cover up how I felt about it, that pain.” –Todd Bridges
In April 2010, Todd Bridges went on “Oprah” to discuss his infamous fall from the heights of child stardom into the depths of drug addiction and crime. He read from his memoir, Killing Willis, of a graphic and painful episode from his childhood that scarred him for life. Bridges described to Oprah how he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a family friend named Ronald when he was 11 years old. Todd said the most devastating part of the experience for him was that after he did tell his father about the abuse, his dad called him a liar.
“That really destroyed me,” he says, “because my father was supposed to be my protector. He didn’t protect me. He allowed this man to do this to me and didn’t help me. I have kids today [and] if my kids told me that, I’m going to jail; that guy’s dead. There’s no way he’s gonna live.” Bridges broke down in tears revisiting the painful memories that ultimately led him to use cocaine, and then Meth.
“I thought that that was the drug that would take me through everything else because it really covered up everything that I was feeling … I was numb to society, I was numb to life … I felt that’s what I deserve … that’s who I am.”
Bridges broke down in tears again as his mother, who was in the studio audience, cried , recalling how she prayed to God and said, “If you wanna take him, take him; I don’t wanna see him like that… I said, ‘I’m giving him back to you.’”
Bridges’ public revelation gave many grown men the courage to tell their stories of childhood abuse, including boxer Sugar Ray Leonard who after seeing the “Oprah” episode decided to reveal his own painful experience publicly. –kathleen cross
