Common has revealed for the first time that he was molested when he was child by a close family friend, Essence reports.
In his recently released autobiography, Let Love Have The Last Word, the rapper – real name Lonnie Rashid Lynn – recalled how the memories came flooding back when he was reading a script for the 2018 movie The Tale, which deals with childhood sexual abuse.
“And one day, while talking through the script with Laura [Dern], old memories surprisingly flashed in my mind,” Common writes. “I said to Laura, ‘I think I was abused’. Right there, it all came back to my mind as if someone had suddenly inserted deleted scenes into that little movie in my head, scenes that I hadn’t remembered or thought about before, scenes I could’ve even remember remembering.”
He further revealed the family member who molested him was a man named Brandon and the abuse happened during a sleepover at a friend’s home.
“[Brandon] kept saying, ‘It’s okay, it’s okay’, as he pulled down my shorts and molested me. Thinking back, I should’ve gotten up from the bed and ran out of the room but I felt a deep and sudden shame for what happened, and for what he kept trying to make happen as I had brought it all on myself.”
Speaking to TMZ about why he choose to open up about the abuse, Common says it’s because he hopes to encourage others to feel safe and to heal.
“I’m telling what I feel and the experiences that I’ve had and ways that I dealt with it and I want people to know that it’s a safe place to be able to talk about things you go through,” he said.
“It’s something I know a lot of people experience, especially black young men and women have experienced it,” he added. “… and a lot of people are afraid to talk about it. And the only way we stop the cycle is to talk about it so that’s why I chose to say something about it.”
SOURCES: FOX NEWS, ESSENCE, TMZ, GOOD READS
