Nationally renowned radio and television host Charlamagne Tha God admitted he had an epiphany when Tyler Perry described his childhood abuse.
At first, Charlamagne, née Lenard McCelvey, couldn’t understand how a pre-teen boy could consider himself being sexually abused when he got it on with a much older female.
“I watched him crying and I remember saying to myself, ‘Well, you know, what’s wrong with him?’” Charlamagne 43, recalled on the “Daily Blast Live” on Monday, Oct. 25, 2021. “Because I think the way that men process sexual assault is different.”
Listening to Perry’s poignant story that he shared with Oprah Winfrey in 2010 helped Charlamagne to process his own experience “as sexual assault” rather as “I was 8 getting it popping with an older woman.”
During his own cathartic interview, Charlamagne explain that his cousin’s ex-wife molested him. The host of “The Breakfast Club” and Comedy Central’s “Daily Blast Live” no longer believes that young males having sexual experiences with older women is normal.
“I literally remember me and my guys at that age having conversations of being with older women back then,” he said. “None of us processed it as sexual assault.”
Charlamagne understands that the experience could have contributed to the mental anxiety he experienced in his 30s.
“Then, I just understood it more because you don’t know what that did to you,” he said.
Charlamagne has since written a book called Shook One: Anxiety Playing Tricks on Me and has become a major mental health advocate.
