Cheryl Burke Recalls the Trauma of Testifying Against Her Childhood Abuser
Cheryl Burke
David Becker/Getty Images for iHeartRadioWhen Cheryl Burke when she was 9 years old, she testified in court against a caretaker who sexually abused her and her adopted sister.
The first one Dancing with the Stars pro recalled a tragic event on Monday, January 20 episode of Old-ish a podcast.
“We were both sexually assaulted by the same person, the carer who was taking care of us,” said Burke, 40. “It was my sister’s best friend who ran away from home and told her mother. It was the reason he was sentenced – he should have gone to jail, but he got out. “
During his trial, “I almost passed out on gas,” he continued. “I will never forget when I was actually testifying with this man sitting in front of me. They didn’t even let my mother go with me, which was so crazy. I was 9 years old. And I thought to myself, ‘Am I doing this?’ I meant this to myself honestly.”
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Burke added: “I just felt, at 9 years old, like I was a child abuser. They make me feel that way.”
He explained in his time Old-ish looking like he is a “master divider” because of his past trauma, which he is trying to make peace with.
“There’s no, ‘Okay, I’m done with that part of my life,'” Burke said. “But I’ve done so much work where I couldn’t resist the anger I had about this one person that I felt like I was slowly dying, so there has to be some kind of peace that happens. Not a condonation of action by any means, but I had to kind of, like, ‘Okay, this man was sick.’
However, he noted, “I do not forgive. I don’t want people to take it this way, as if I’m forgiving him for molesting him.”
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Burke has spoken publicly about the abuse he endured as a child, for the first time in 2015 and later when they were discussing how this problem came to be it affected her relationships with men as an adult.
He thinks that, going forward, it will be more difficult for some victims to speak out against their abusers.
“It’s society today, man,” Burke said Old-ishadding, “Why would anyone want to come forward and tell their truth when the victim feels they are doing something wrong?” And it is very easy to enlighten someone and this whole system of restrictions. It’s all bullshit—because it takes decades, if not a lifetime, to finally realize or have some kind of realization that, ‘Yeah, maybe I was raped.'”
He added: “There are no quick fixes for any of this. There is none. And I don’t want that to happen in any way. There is no medicine. No shrooms. Believe me, I tried everything. And it just comes back tenfold without you having to do the work, and boy does it hurt. It hurts. This work is painful.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually abused, contact National Sexual Assault Number at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
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