Karen Huger Speaks Out on Being Date Raped at 19 Years Old!
Karen Huger, who is the star of the reality series, ‘The Real Housewives of Potomac’ is speaking publicly for the first time about being date-raped at 19-years-old.
Via Page Six:
Karen Huger
“I was raped almost 35 years ago,” Huger revealed to Page Six, and she is now fighting against what she calls an “alarming” suicide rate among sexual assault victims. “The fact that I survived is part of my reality and I’m hoping that message resonates with the viewers,” she said. In what she describes as “a typical date that went totally off the rails,” the mom of two, now 54, isn’t hiding what happened to her, she’s vocalizing it on national television with a purpose.
“I am put in a very wonderful position to show that when adversity comes your way it doesn’t stop you, it can propel you,” she said of her platform as a Bravo fixture. “It is my responsibility to be real. I have no shame and I carry no burden because of what happened.”
Karen Huger speaks out on being Date Raped at 19 years old.
However, the name of her attacker is something she chooses not to disclose. “I will never reveal his name, he has passed on,” she explained. “[But] I can say he was a public figure.”
“If he were alive today it might be a different story,” she said. “I’d like to have it out with him. But I forgave him a long time ago, that is why I lead I life I do today, forgiveness is a part of it.” Huger’s story will be told on Sunday night’s “RHOP” episode where Bravo cameras rolled as she received the ambassador award from Promoting Awareness | Victim Empowerment (PAVE), a non-profit organization that works to prevent sexual violence through education. She has worked with the group for three years, and said she “knew she needed to be a part of it” after attending a fundraiser that focused on teaching consent to middle school and high school students.
“For me personally as a survivor, I felt I had the responsibility to do whatever I could do to prevent another child from choosing death to end their suffering,” she explained. “If hearing my story could save one life it is well worth it, and I will do it again and again.”
Other PAVE honorees in past years have included Lady Gaga and Dr. Jill Biden. Huger was honored along with CNN’s Don Lemon in 2016.
“I’m humbled for my name to be spoken in the same sentence,” she said “We’re champions of shattering the silence of sexual abuse,” she said, referring to the fact that many sexual assaults — like her own — go unreported.
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