Charlize Theron has opened up about the night that her mother killed her father in self-defense in her new interview with NPR.
As per the Bombshell star's candid discussion, the Hollywood titan, 44, is "not ashamed" to recall the moment she saw her mother, Gerda Moritz, fatally shoot her father, Charles, while the family was living in Johannesburg in 1991. According to the star, her alcoholic father was a "very sick man" and that left her family in a "pretty hopeless situation." "My father was so drunk that he shouldn't have been able to walk when he came into the house with a gun," she said of the incident, which occurred when she was just 15-years-old. "My mom and I were in my bedroom leaning against the door because he was trying to push through the door. So both of us were leaning against the door from the inside to have him not be able to push through."
Theron went on to admit that he took a stop back and shot through the door thee times. Thankfully, none of the bullets ever hit her or Gerda, something the actress deemed as a miracle. "But in self-defense, she ended the threat," she said. "This family violence, this kind of violence that happens within the family, is something that I share with a lot of people. I'm not ashamed to talk about it, because I do think that the more we talk about these things, the more we realize we are not alone in any of it. I think, for me, it’s just always been that this story is about growing up with addicts and what that does to a person."
"I think our family was an incredibly unhealthy one," she continued. "And all of it, I think, scarred us in a way. Of course, I wish what happened that night would have never happened. It's unfortunately what happens when you don't get to the root of these issues."
No charges were brought against Gerda and Charlize for Charles' fatal shooting.
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