Connie Chung revealed that she was sexually assaulted in the 1960s by her family doctor. The journalist shared her story in an open letter to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault.
“I, too, was sexually assaulted — not 36 years ago but about 50 years ago. I have kept my dirty little secret to myself. Silence for five decades,” Chung wrote in the letter, which The Washington Post published on Wednesday, October 3. “The molester was our trusted family doctor. What made this monster even more reprehensible was that he was the very doctor who delivered me on August 20, 1946. I’m 72 now.”
The news anchor said she is “100 percent” sure who sexually assaulted her as the attack is “forever seared in my memory.”
“I went to my family doctor to ask for birth-control pills, an IUD or a diaphragm,” she recalled. “He drew the curtain, asking me to remove my clothes below the waist while he sat at his desk by the bay window. When I was ready, he came to the examination area and installed stirrups on one end of the cushioned examination table. Here I was in my 20s and I had never had a gynecological examination. I had never even seen exam stirrups before. It was extremely odd to spread my legs and dig my heels into those cold iron stirrups.”
Chung wrote that the doctor inserted his finger in her vagina and “coached me verbally in a soft voice.” After she had an orgasm, he “leaned over, kissed me, a peck on my lips, and slipped behind the curtain to his office area,” she recounted, adding that she “quickly dressed and drove home.”
The TV presenter, who is married to Maury Povich, said she did not tell her parents or authorities about the incident. She wrote that she was a virgin at the time and felt “embarrassed about my sexual naïveté.”
“Christine, I, too, am terrified as I reveal this publicly,” she added. “I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. Can you? If you can’t, I understand. I am frightened, I am scared, I can’t even cry. … I wish I could forget this truthful event, but I cannot because it is the truth. I am writing to you because I know that exact dates, exact years are insignificant. We remember exactly what happened to us and who did it to us. We remember the truth forever.”
Ford, 51, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, September 27, that she is “100 percent” certain Kavanaugh, 53, sexually assaulted her at a high school party in 1982. The judge denied the claims, which the FBI is investigating before his Supreme Court nomination moves to the Senate floor.
If you or anyone you know has been sexually assaulted, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). A trained staff member will provide confidential, judgment-free support as well as local resources to assist in healing and recovering, and more.
