Unpleasant times: Theron, Rihanna, Minogue and other stars who survived tragedy

Survived abuse at age 9

The richest woman in America, her show’s ratings are exploding, her own channel is booming… Oprah Winfrey – this name means success. His journey is a living embodiment of the American dream. Only now Oprah’s launchpad was a nightmare and the bottom of life. Oprah was born into a family of a housekeeper and a hairdresser, but she rarely saw her parents as a child. Oprah spent the first six years of her life with her grandmother in the countryside. Thanks to her, she learned to read, studied the Bible. True, for the slightest misconduct, a rod served as a punishment … After a while, the mother nevertheless became interested in the girl and took her to her home in the Milwaukee ghetto. Oprah started going to school (but not as often as needed) and socializing with her peers. Carefree childhood? No matter how. Nine-year-old Oprah was raped by her cousin, and after the assault from the brothers, their friends and her own uncle continued.

At the age of 13, Oprah became pregnant (it is unclear from whom), and in order to kill herself, she drank a cleaning product. As terrible as it sounds, Oprah was relieved when the baby died immediately after birth. Fate gave her a second chance when, after giving birth, she ran away from her father. He did everything to get his daughter to college and get up.

Survived abuse at age 8

A tough girl who argues with Timbaland himself and releases brilliant hip-hop, takes care of herself and spits on bad critics and envious people. And still sees in a dream the end of the world and people on fire. These nightmares have stayed with her since childhood, in which her father mocked her and her mother. “He constantly beat his mother. And one night he pointed a gun at both of us and told us to get out of the house where we were. When Missy was eight, her 16-year-old cousin started raping her. In desperation, Melissa (Missy’s full name) sent letters to her idols, Michael and Janet Jackson, asking them to get her out of the house. Her mother herself decided to run away when Missy was 13. “At first, I lived in constant fear that my father would find us and kill us.”

Became a victim of my own fan

Red-haired singer, musician and lyricist Tori Amos was raped by a “fan” at age 20. Tori founded the group Y Kant Tori Read, which performed in small venues. Once, Tory agreed to give a fan a lift after a concert at a club, and he pulled out a gun and ordered to strip. This episode derailed Tori for ten years. She could not have affairs with men and was afraid. It wasn’t until six years later that Tori decided to speak about her tragedy in the song Me and the Gun (“Me and the Gun”), performing it a cappella at a concert, and ten years after the incident, she overcame it. phobias with the help of a support organization for victims of violence. In 1998, Tori got married and gave birth to a daughter, and according to her, only this helped her get rid of her obsessive thoughts.

Became a witness to the tragic quarrel of the parents

Like Missy Eliot, Charlize Theron’s father was a chronic alcoholic who beat his wife and pointed a shotgun at his daughter. On June 21, 1991, Gerda Theron shot her husband dead in front of her 15-year-old daughter during another argument. “I never held a grudge against my mother for what happened – she saved her and my life,” Charlize Theron says of the tragedy.

Became a victim of her boyfriend

Carefree little Rea, a perky little girl from Barbados, a fashionista and a hoodlum. Well, how such a serious problem? The whole world loves him, and those around him within a radius of three meters lose their heads with charm. Some get really crazy, as happened in 2009 with her boyfriend, performer Chris Brown. Chris Brown, 19, brutally beat Rihanna, 21, in a locked car, from which the girl had no chance of escaping. Chris even tried to strangle the girl, but the police came to the screams. Later, Chris Brown voluntarily appeared at the station and in court, although he initially denied his guilt. Later, sentenced to community service and five years probation, Brown repented and Rihanna tried to survive what happened. First, the girl got a tattoo: small pistols on the ribs on the sides as a symbol of strength and protection and an inscription on the collarbone Never a failure always a lesson (“Not a mistake, but a lesson”). Like Tori Amos, Rihanna lived her pain in the arts. The singer recorded the song Russian Roulette and shot a video where she communicates with a criminal during a confrontation. Afterwards Rihanna returned more than once to the theme of violence in her songs. So, she presented the song Man Down (“The guy is killed”), where she shoots her rapist in the video. Later, Brown repeatedly admitted his mistake and went out into the world with Rihanna. Recently, he even got a tattoo on his neck in the form of a portrait of a battered woman to remind himself of his mistake every day.

beat cancer

“When the doctors told me the diagnosis, I was speechless,” learned Kylie Minogue in 2005. Before her, there was surgery and chemotherapy. Kylie lost her hair, weighed 38 kilos and looked like an old woman with pale skin, especially in the photo of the ubiquitous paparazzi who followed her everywhere. The struggle lasted for a year and a half, and immediately after the official end of treatment, Kylie resumed her interrupted tour, began to write a book and record an album, and also created a perfume. But Kylie Minogue’s greatest achievement is bringing the breast cancer problem to the public’s attention. Doctors note the emergence of the “Kylie effect”, when many women began to pay more attention to their health and had regular mammograms.

Lost a child twice

The first attempts of the British singerLily Allen becoming a mother was tragic. In late 2007, 22-year-old Lily Allen and her boyfriend, 37-year-old Chemical Brothers singer Ed Simons, announced their pregnancy. For the future mother to rest and recover before a difficult time, the couple went on a romantic vacation to the Maldives … where Lily lost her child. Shortly after the tragedy, the couple broke up and Lily began to rebuild her happiness again. In 2011, the singer married construction company owner Sam Cooper. The reason for playing the wedding was the singer’s second miscarriage. The baby was stillborn much earlier than expected. However, this time the troubles only rallied the lovers, who decided to get married. And the same year, Lily Allen became a mother! At the end of 2011, she gave birth to a healthy daughter named Ethel Marie, and in the summer of the following year the couple again announced the pregnancy.

Photo: Getty images, East News