JANE Fonda has told an audience of activists and philanthropists her mother was sexually abused as a child before eventually committing suicide at 42.
Fonda shared the personal story at an event celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Rape Treatment Centre which provides free treatment for sexual assault victims.
She hosted the Rape Foundation's annual fundraising brunch at billionaire Ron Burkle's Greenacres estate in Beverly Hills.
Fonda said that while writing her memoirs, she reviewed her mother's medical records and discovered she had been sexually abused when she was eight. Frances Ford Seymour committed suicide when Fonda was 12.
Fonda said: "The minute I read that, everything fell into place. I knew why the promiscuity, the endless plastic surgery, the guilt, the inability to love or be intimate, and I was able to forgive her and forgive myself."
She said sexual violence was "epidemic", vowing: "I will support the Rape Treatment Centre for the rest of my life."
Gail Abarbanel, founder of the Rape Treatment Centre and president of the Rape Foundation, introduced several rape survivors, including the mother of the victim of a notorius high school assault in Ohio. She noted her daughter's bravery in pressing charges against her attackers.
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