Ashley Judd sat down with a man who raped her in 1999 for a “restorative justice conversation.”
The 54-year-old actor described the encounter during Tuesday’s episode Healing with David Kessler podcast, saying they “ended up in rocking chairs sitting together by a stream.”
The Los Angeles native explained that while she “didn’t need anything” from her rapist, she was “very interested in hearing” his story, reported the New York Post.
The man allegedly expressed “deep remorse and made amends,” Judd said, which was “just gravy” considering he had already “done trauma work” of his own.
“I wanted to share this story because there are many ways to heal pain and it’s important to remind listeners of that,” she added.
Judd has already spoken publicly about being a three-time rape survivor. She first shared her story in her 2011 memoir, All that is bitter and sweet.
In 2015, the Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Brotherhood star thanked her therapist for helping her “finally talk” about the assaults.
“Nine years into my recovery, I can go further and say that my ‘story’ is not ‘my story,'” he wrote in a Mic.com essay at the time.
“It is something that a Higher Power uses (spirituality, for me, has been vital in this healing) to allow me the grace and privilege to help others who are still suffering and perhaps offer a piece of education, awareness and action in our world.” Judd continued.
Judd revealed four years later that she became pregnant from one of her rapes, telling US journalist Katie Couric how “grateful” she was to have access to a “safe and legal abortion” at that time. moment
“The rapist, who is from Kentucky, like me, and I live in Tennessee, he has parental rights in Kentucky and Tennessee,” Judd explained during the 2019 roundtable.
“I would have had to parent a rapist.”
The story appeared in the New York Post and is reproduced with permission.