Teri Hatcher of "Desperate Housewives" reveals in the new issue of Vanity Fair that she was sexually molested by her uncle when she was 5 years old.
The now 41-year-old actress says she learned in 2002 that another victim of her uncle, a 14-year-old, had committed suicide. Concerned that he would escape charges of molestation, she went to Santa Clara County prosecutors in California and told them her story.
"This is something I've tried to hide my whole life," Teri said. "I was just blown away by this young girl's pain. I thought, boy, that's really close to being me. Any day of the week I could feel that sort of pain. I haven't tried to kill myself, but I've certainly thought about it."
Because of Teri's revelations and involvement in the case, her uncle, Richard Hayes Stone, pleaded guilty to four counts of child molestation and received 14 years in prison.
The popular D-wife actress said she hesitated to even come forward because she thought the tabloids would suggest she was trying to resuscitate her then-languishing career. "Here's what I anticipated: He did this, he gets off, and Teri ends up on the cover a tabloid."
She said she was 5-years-old and living with her family in Sunnyvale, California, when her uncle would manipulate situations to get him and Teri alone in his car so he could take advantage of her. "These are haunting things that I've remembered all my life," she said. "I think their way of dealing with things is denial and guilt. Nobody wanted to talk about it. But all I did was blame myself."
Although she never told her parents, she thinks they suspected something was very wrong. The actress said her mother seemed to sense something amiss after Teri "went ballistic" when her uncle and aunt were invited to dinner when she was 8 or 9.
Her mother, she said, "felt like something weird was happening, and she removed me from the situation, but she never asked me about it. After that, I didn't see my aunt and uncle."
"Without Teri, this case would have been dismissed," Santa Clara County prosecutor Chuck Gillingham told Vanity Fair. "But she volunteered to talk about the most heinous thing that could happen to a child, with no upside for her. She is a damn good person."
