Country singer Chase Rice is reflecting on how his mom reacted to him publicly addressing his childhood sexual abuse for the first time.
Rice, 41, shared on the “Taking Back Ocala” podcast that he spoke out in a June 2025 interview, which led to a conversation between him and his mom. Rice explained that he and his mom talked after a summer trip to church camp with their family.
“It was something we’ve been doing since we were kids, and we finally started going back now that my brothers have kids,” he said during the recent episode. “And she didn’t say a word about it, and I didn’t think about it. It’s just me talking to a podcast. I was just like, ‘Whatever. I’m not going to try to hide this.’ She didn’t say nothing.”
When Rice returned home that night, his mom asked if the pair could speak on the phone.
“I said, ‘What’s up mom?’ And she started crying on the phone. She said, ‘I had no idea.’ She had an idea, and she knew it was a wrong part of my life and that we dealt with it the wrong way, but she’d never heard me say it,” he said. “But man, it was weird because it was a moment where you’re talking to your mom again about this thing that you’ve been so scared to even address your whole life.”
He continued, “A lot of me went back into like, ‘Oh, s***, I’m in trouble.’ And it wasn’t that. And you know it’s not gonna be, but it was her apologizing. At the same time it’s like, ‘It wasn’t your fault, Mom.’ Stuff happened that was wrong. It’s OK. I’m facing it now.”
Rice shared that he is “stronger now” because if he “could say no in life in the long run to a sexual addiction or drinking addiction or drug addiction,” then he feels like “nothing’s going to stop” him.
“Not even saying no, but if you can beat it over time and with the right people around you and with Jesus, literally nothing can stop you,” he said. “You’re good from that point on.”
In June 2025, Rice made his first public comment about childhood sexual abuse and shared that he was molested as a “little kid.”
“That’s the first time I’ve ever said that in public, and I’m OK with saying that ‘cause I went through that and relived it,” he said on the “In the Blinds” podcast at the time. “I’m like, man, I was just a kid. I had nothing to do with that. And it was really f***ing sad that that happened to me. It doesn’t define who I am now.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing child abuse, call or text Child Help Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.
