Lukas Gage reveals he was sexually abused by camp counsellor when he was 11

"You feel there's a participation of you, and it wasn't until I had a therapist be like, literally had to break it down for me like in my twenties. [They said] 'You're in your twenties, this person was in their twenties, would you ever do anything with an 11-year-old?' I'm like, no. No. But that was a hard part to talk about."

"I sat her down and I was like, 'Look, I hate talking about this. I hate having this talk with you. I hate having shame about it because we shouldn't have shame about it. I just want to warn you, there's probably a part that's gonna be disturbing for a mom to read, but you did nothing wrong and it wasn't because of a lack of your parenting or anything,' he said. 'It was hard for her to read.'"

Lukas Gage shared that a counsellor at an acting camp abused him when he was 11. He did not recognize the experience as molestation until his twenties after therapy reframed the power imbalance. He described dissociation and a pervasive sense of misplaced responsibility. He first spoke about the abuse publicly on a podcast and detailed it in his memoir. He gave the memoir to his mother, warned her about disturbing content, and reassured her that she was not at fault. He said seeing his mother's hurt when she read the account was devastating.

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