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Stars and childhood sex abuse
(CNN) -- The actor in the title role of the new Denzel Washington film "Antwone Fisher," Derek Luke, plays a young man who must overcome emotional and sexual abuse. Like his character, Luke said he has been abused. "I was molested, and I have my own personal fight," he acknowledged publicly for the first time in an interview with CNN.com this week. (Full story) Luke is not the first celebrity to publicly tell their history of sexual abuse. Others include Oprah Winfrey, Anne Heche, Tom Arnold and Roseanne.
In a 1991 article in People magazine, Roseanne stunned her parents by accusing her mother of sexually abusing her. The actress-comedian said she had discovered during psychotherapy that her mother had abused her from infancy to age 7, an accusation categorically denied by her parents.
Roseanne's ex-husband, comedian Tom Arnold, also has come out with stories of sexual abuse. He told SanDiego-online.com that both his mother and an 18-year-old babysitter abused him from age 5 to 7. Recently, Arnold reportedly confronted his former babysitter, who denied the accusation.
In a 2000 episode of the Arts and Entertainment network program "Biography," talk show host Oprah Winfrey revealed in detail that she had been raped by a 19-year-old cousin when she was just 9-years-old and was sexually abused for years afterward. She also acknowledged that she had given birth to a son at age 14. The boy died two weeks later.
Actor Anne Heche told ABC's "20/20" in September that her father had sexually abused her when she was a toddler, qualifying that the incident was "in my memory." Heche also accused her father of giving her herpes. Heche's mother and sister have publicly denied her accusations.
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