“My darkest secret until now”: Uma Thurman’s emotional confession
Uma Thurman has shared her “darkest secret” in an emotional essay published this week in The Washington Post.
The Kill Bill star criticised the Texas abortion ban after revealing she had an abortion in her “late teens”.
Thurman shared her own experience in the hope of “drawing the flames of controversy away from the vulnerable women on whom this law will have an immediate effect”.
“This law is yet another discriminatory tool against those who are economically disadvantaged, and often, indeed, against their partners,” Thurman wrote.
“Women and children of wealthy families retain all the choices in the world, and face little risk.
“I am grief-stricken, as well, that the law pits citizen against citizen, creating new vigilantes who will prey on disadvantaged women, denying them the choice not to have children they are not equipped to care for, or extinguishing their hopes for the future family they might choose.”
In her story, Thurman described how she fell pregnant by accident to “a much older man” while “living out of a suitcase in Europe, far from my family, and about to start a job”.
After seeking advice from her parents, including her gravely ill mother, Thurman came to the decision that she would terminate the pregnancy.
Thurman noted that she didn’t have the means to provide a stable home for a newborn at the time, and that her decision then allowed her to have children when she was ready.
“The abortion I had as a teenager was the hardest decision of my life, one that caused me anguish then and that saddens me even now, but it was the path to the life full of joy and love that I have experienced,” she wrote.
“Choosing not to keep that early pregnancy allowed me to grow up and become the mother I wanted and needed to be.
“It has been my darkest secret until now.
“I am 51 years old, and I am sharing it with you from the home where I have raised my three children, who are my pride and joy.”
Thurman shares two children with ex-husband Ethan Hawke, and a daughter with ex-fiancé Arpad Busson.
Thurman ended the piece by appealing to the women and girls affected by the controversial new law and sharing an inspiring message.
“To all of you - to women and girls of Texas, afraid of being traumatised and hounded by predatory bounty hunters; to all women outraged by having our bodies’ rights taken by the state; and to all of you who are made vulnerable and subjected to shame because you have a uterus - I say: I see you.
“Have courage. You are beautiful. You remind me of my daughters.”
Image credit: @umathurman / Instagram