Warning: the following story contains details of domestic violence
Patrick Stewart has detailed his “horrifying” childhood of “domestic violence” in a new interview aiming to raise awareness about domestic abuse.
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In an interview for a new ITV documentary, Her Majesty The Queen: Behind Closed Doors, the Star Trek actor revealed that he hadn’t spoken about it initially because of the “shame” he felt following a childhood in which his father was violent.
The new programme sees Queen Camilla speaking to survivors of domestic abuse survivors and exploring the help needed for those who have suffered such abuse.
Speaking about his own experiences, Stewart explained: “Domestic violence was something that people never spoke about. And so I never told anyone. I kept it all to myself. It was locked inside me, and I felt shame,” (as per The Times).
Speaking about what he experienced, Stewart added: “The war ended in 1945. So I was, by the time my father came home, 6 years old. And it was horrifying.
“The shouting was so loud because he had a huge voice,” he continued, adding that he would “would scream at my father to stop when he hit my mother and hit her again and again.”
Stewart said that he and his brother “used to sit on the steps leading down from the bedrooms, right behind the door that opened up into the one living room” and resultantly, they “became experts at understanding where the shouting was going, what it was going to lead to, and we always knew the moment that the violence was going to begin.”
“So with that, we would push open the door and burst into the room, and my brother Trevor, who was taller than me, would force himself between my father and my mother so that he couldn’t reach her.
“And she would shout out, ‘No, no, no, please, you don’t have to protect me. I’m all right, I’m all right.’ And I yelled at him as well.”
Stewart also revealed how a neighbour once stepped in at one point. He added: “But it was humiliating to have come from such a background.”
Her Majesty The Queen: Behind Closed Doors is airing now on ITV1.
If you are experiencing domestic violence you can contact the National Domestic Abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247.
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