The 47-year-old rapper and actor, Common, recently revealed that he was a victim of sexual abuse as a child. In a recent exclusive interview with PEOPLE, he discussed repressing the episodes and how it was rekindled while working on “The Tale” on HBO film.
He said as he discussed the movie script with Laura flashes of the incident replayed in his mind. As much as he tried to push them away they kept looping over and over till he spilled his gut to Laura.
Common also shed some light about his abuse episode in his memoir, “Let love have the last word”. He discusses the details of how a family member molested when he was 9 or 10 years old. He had gone on a road trip with his mother, godmother, his good brother and a relative who he gave an alias, Brandon.
Brandon molested him at his aunt’s house on one of those nights. He tried pushing him away and remembers repeating the word “No” several times. Despite his pleas, Brandon continued on his quest saying “it’s okay” as he pulled down his shorts. Common revealed that he had to take therapy sessions to deal with the abuse and finally he just pushed it out of his mind. He rounded up by saying he had forgiven Brandon even though he hadn’t seen him in about 25 years.
Common says he wants to be that voice that helps people overcome depression and break cycles of violence.