In a new episode of Kemi Adetiba’s 'King Women' on Accelerate TV, the famous photographer and singer opened up about a part of her life that many peop
In a new episode of Kemi Adetiba’s ‘King Women’ on Accelerate TV, the famous photographer and singer opened up about a part of her life that many people never knew: she was sexually assaulted as a child and this tragedy left deep psychological wounds that shaped her formative years.
“Because of this, I felt like there was something ugly about me that made me encounter this,” said the singer who added that she blamed herself for the horror she endured.
“This was not the abuser’s fault, this was me. I used to see other girls as flowers and I saw myself as dirty cement, hard and ugly. I never felt beautiful, everything was wrong with me, I was hairy and it was a problem.”
She said in the riveting interview, noting how she continued in the self-blame which would only be healed by virtue of religion. “I always attributed everything that was about me to be the reason someone took advantage of me. I thought there was something wrong with me because if the others girls were like me perhaps they would be dirty like me but they were flowers,” she said.
Adding, “When a friend told me about salvation, she told me old things would be passed away and all things will become new. It was as if God could wash away that stench and I would become a girl because I didn’t feel like a girl.”
For TY Bello, she would later realise that sexual assault is rife in our society and victims hardly speak up.
“I was shocked when I grew up and found that one out every three or four girls in my secondary school had suffered the same thing and I could tell them the same thing… that old things can pass away,” she said. “It was a relief to find that I was not the only one and a shock that nobody talks about it. That’s why salvation worked, I had a daddy and I was going to be a flower,” she said.
