Gloria Estefan is opening up more about experiencing sexual abuse as a 9-year-old girl. The singer and actress, now 66 years old, opened up during an interview for the Life Stories documentary series titled The Thread.
When asked about the incident, she recalled going through the abuse by a family member and how she initially revealed the information a few years ago in order to help other survivors. The eight-time Grammy winner started off by recalling her abuser to be "a predator of the worst kind."
"My mother heard that one of my dad's cousins had a beautiful classical music school," she said. They thought that it'd be a good idea for her to learn music in addition to singing, so she began spending time with the cousin to study music. "My dad was thrilled for me to go and study classical guitar."
Eventually, the abuse started happening. "It starts little by little," she warned other parents. "And then it goes fast." She explained that it took her over a year to find the courage to let her mom know what was happening.
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"I think I got even more fearful because I knew that he was getting to the point where he was going to do something irreversible to me," Gloria said. "I knew that I had to avoid that at all costs."
Because of the fact that she held her abuse a secret for so long, it started taking a toll on her physically. "I lost a circle of hair from my head with anxiety," she said, adding that her hair loss and her "making excuses" to not go to class were strong indicators of what she was dealing with.
She opened up about her abuse in 2021 during her appearance on Red Table Talk: The Estefans. Her niece, 54-year-old Lili Estefan, and daughter, 26-year-old Emily Estefan, were by her side. "Ninety-three percent of abused children know and trust their abusers. And I know this because I was one of them," she said at the time.
"He was in a position of power because my mother had put me in his music school, and he immediately started telling her how talented I was, and how I needed special attention, and she felt lucky that he was focusing this kind of attention on me," she said. "He put it in a way of, 'Oh, you're so good at this, and let me teach you whatever.'"
She mentioned trying to make him stop the abuse at a point in time. "I told him, 'This cannot happen, you cannot do this,' and he goes, 'Your father's in Vietnam, your mother's alone, and I will kill her if you tell her,'" she recalled. "And I knew he was crazy because at no point did I ever think that it was because of me that this was happening. I knew the man was insane and that's why I thought he might actually hurt my mother."
In the documentary series interview, she shared some advice with parents on how to try to prevent sexual abuse from happening. "Arming [kids] with tools like speaking to them openly about it, telling them 'you can always tell mommy or daddy anything that's happening to you'" is one thing she suggested would help. "There are ways that we can stop this from happening, and of course, putting those predators behind bars, because they wouldn't get away with it."
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, the National Sexual Assault Hotline provides confidential 24/7 support. Call 800-656-HOPE (4673) or chat online at RAINN.
