Charlize Theron has opened up about the moment her mother fatally shot her father in self defence.
The now 50-year-old actress was just 15 when her mum, Gerda Theron, shot her father Charles Theron in a 1991 incident after he had attempted to shoot them both.
In the raw interview with the New York Times, Charlize said her dad was a “full-blown functioning drunk” who often got into heated fights with her mum.
“I think these things should be talked about because it makes other people not feel alone,” she told the outlet.
Charlize noted that while she has never heard another story quite like her own, she is no longer haunted by the past.
The actress explained she and her mum had gone to visit her uncle’s home, but she upset her dad by not greeting people in the house before running to the bathroom.
She recalled her dad took her behaviour as being rude when she didn’t stop.
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“Big thing in South Africa, the kind of respect that you have to have for elders. And he was in a state where he just spiralled. Like: ‘Why didn’t you stop? Who do you think you are?'” she said.
Charlize knew her dad was mad, and asked her mum to help diffuse the situation when he got home and to tell him she was asleep.
“I went into my room, I turned my lights off, and I was scared. My window faced the driveway, and I could tell the level of anger, frustration, or unhappiness by the way he drove in,” she said.
She noted that she “just knew something bad was going to happen.”
The actress recalled her father “broke into the house” shooting through doors to get in, “making it very clear that he was going to kill us.”
Gerda ran to the safe to retrieve her own gun, before returning to Charlize’s bedroom where they both held the door with their bodies because there wasn’t a lock.
“He just stepped back and started shooting through the door,” she continued.
“The messaging was very clear: ‘I’m going to kill you tonight. You think I can’t come into this door? Watch me. I’m going to go to the safe. I’m going to get the shotgun.'”
Charlize recalled that her father and uncle were both shot.
“He walked to the safe, and my mom pulled the door open while the brother was still standing there,” Theron said.
“The brother ran down the hallway, and she shot one bullet down the hallway that ricocheted seven times and shot him in the hand. It’s stuff you can’t explain. And then she followed my father, who was by then opening the safe to get more weapons out, and she shot him.”
But after the incident, Charlize recalled that her mum just picked up and moved on.
The next day, she was sent to school and the attitude was just “we’re going to move on” which while she admits isn’t necessarily healthy, it worked.
Gerda faced no charges as the shooting was ultimately ruled as self defence.
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The Academy Award winning actress has spoken about the “trauma” of her father’s death in the past.
Charlize has also been vocal about gender-based violence.
“Gender-based violence is so in your face in South Africa and globally,” she told Town & Country magazine in 2023.
“It’s hard to not be aware of these things just purely by being a woman.”
If you or someone you know needs help, contact the National Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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