Singer Billie Holiday had a tumultuous childhood, having to work from age 11 at a restaurant and being sent to Catholic reform school. When Holiday was 11, a neighbor raped her, according to Thebiographychannel.co.uk. Holiday also spent a short time working as a prostitute. Inspired by jazz instrumentalists, her vocal style helped pioneer a new way of manipulating tempo and phrasing.
The singer-songwriter was raped by an intruder in her New York City apartment hallway when she was 12. According to NotableBiographies.com, this incident pushed Apple to write music because she had a desire to express her emotions about the event to the world.
On the David Letterman show, Winfrey opened up about having been raped when she was 9, and having suffered several incidents of sexual attack until age 14. According to DailyMail.co.uk, it was this incident that instilled in Winfrey the immense empathy that allows her to get some of the biggest stars to open up to her about their deepest emotions.
In an interview on Oprah.com, the actress opened up about the fact that when she was 19 and working in a shoe store, a robber came into the store and raped her at gunpoint. Union says keeping the right people around her encouraged her to live “survivorhood, not victimhood.”
The prolific screenwriter, actor and producer was the victim of several sexual assaults as a child. According to Oprah.com, Perry was molested by four different adults including a male neighbor, a man from his church and the mother of one of his friends. Perry says that as a result of the trauma, it wasn’t until his 20s that he began to understand his own sexuality.
When everyone’s favorite nanny from “The Nanny” was still with her husband Peter Jacobson, who came out as gay after their divorce, she and her husband were robbed. According to HuffingtonPost.com, the robber raped Drescher at gunpoint and forced her husband to watch.
The actress once romantically involved with Ellen Degeneres spent the first 31 years of her life suffering from mental illness triggered by sexual assault. According to ABCnews.go.com, the actress’ father raped her from the time she was a toddler until she was 12. It took years of therapy to bring Heche to a place where she could tell her mother about the abuse.
The front man for the grunge group Stone Temple Pilots revealed in his memoir that when he was 12 years old, he was raped by a senior at his high school. According to an interview on Huffingtonpost.com, the musician suppressed this memory but it came back to him in rehab.
In her memoir, the American Idol alum reveals that she was raped in the ninth grade in the school auditorium by a boy she had a crush on. According to ABCnews.go.com, Fantasia reported the boy, but for a while blamed herself for the incident.
In a press conference in Washington, D.C., the actress who is reportedly considering running for senate admitted to being a three-time rape survivor. Judd spoke about rape in February at George Washington University, according to MotherJones.com. Her stories sparked a lot of conversation and emotion in the crowd, and even inspired some in the audience to come forward with their own stories of sexual assault.
During an interview on “The Howard Stern” radio show the pop star shared that, at the age of 19 she was raped. Gaga told Stern that her song “Swine” is about sexual violence, and that she never confronted the man who assaulted her nor did she go to authorities because she didn’t want to be defined by the experience.
Source: Huffingtonpost.com
In early 2014 Labeouf lived in a Los Angeles art gallery for five days where he conducted his art exhibit called #IAMSORRY. During the exhibit the “Transformers” star wore a paper bag over his head that read, “I AM NOT FAMOUS ANYMORE” and invited guests to sit in silence with him. Labeouf eventually revealed that one such guest, a female who attended the exhibit with her boyfriend, raped the star in a private room. His co-artists have confirmed the story.
Source: Dailymail.co.uk
The star of the silver screen grew up performing with her father, Eduardo Cansinos. Cansinos would pretend Hayworth was his wife for the sake of their dancing performances and would rape his daughter during the day. Orson Welles, Hayworth’s second husband, confirmed this to the star’s biographer.
Source: People.com
When the poet was just eight years old, her mother’s boyfriend at the time raped her. After Angelou testified against the man, several of her uncles beat him to death. Angelou believed the fact that she spoke the man’s name caused his death, and she proceeded not to speak for five years.
Source: Notablebiographies.com
The “Top Gun” star turned down the rape victim role in the movie “The Accused” because it hit too close to home. When the star was in her twenties two men broke into her apartment and brutally raped her at knifepoint.
Source: Notablebiographies.com
The singer was raped at gunpoint at the age of 21. Amos’ song “Me and a Gun” are about the incident. Amos said in an interview with Guardian newspaper that she only felt she had claimed back her body after giving birth to her daughter.
Source: Thefrisky.com
The late British BBC disc jockey wrote in his autobiography that he was raped at the age of 13. An older student at Peel’s school had been sexually abusing him continuously in study hall and eventually raped him in a cemetery restroom.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
