A woman revealed her dark family secrets to Iyanla Vanzant and was basically attacked by the author, talk show host and counselor for doing so. On a recent episode of OWN Network’s controversial “Iyanla: Fix My Life,” Vanzant travels to San Antonio, Texas, to counsel two sisters whose relationship is suffering because of traumatizing childhood secrets. Here’s the brief explanation from OWN:
“Iyanla has traveled to San Antonio to meet two sisters in crisis, Barbara and Geneva. Barbara grew up affluently with her aunt and uncle. Geneva was raised by their mother in poverty.
At 17, Barbara invited her younger sister to come live with her, but a rift formed between the sisters after Barbara learned Geneva was sleeping with Barbara’s boyfriend, who fathered two of Geneva’s four children. Now, Iyanla wants to get Geneva’s side of the story.”
What’s was almost as disturbing as Geneva’s confession of being sexually assaulted at the age of 16 by her sister’s boyfriend, was Vanzant’s reaction to her abuse.
When pressed for details on why Barbara’s boyfriend sexually assaulted her, Geneva reveals that at times she was given money to “sleep with him.” While many would expect words of comfort during this type of graphic confession, Vanzant frankly responded, “You were h–ing!”
What’s worse, is that no one seemed to care! How social media — or major media outlets, for that matter, let this incident slip under the radar is baffling. When Geneva described her assault and expected comfort, she was called a whore. There were no calls for Vanzant to apologize, no social media uproar concerning this strange occurrence and very few write-ups. How Vanzant qualifies her reaction as helping another woman “heal” is beyond us. –ruthie hawkins/@ruubabie
