Overview
- Theron, who spoke to The New York Times on Saturday, recounts that her mother fatally shot her father to protect them when she was 15.
- She says her father broke into the house after drinking and fired through steel doors as she and her mother braced her bedroom door while bullets tore through it without hitting them.
- According to her account, he moved to the safe for more guns, her mother fired once down the hallway and wounded an uncle, then followed him and shot him.
- Theron says her mother later sent her to boarding school, and she left South Africa at 16 to model in Europe as she sought independence.
- She places the night in a climate of daily danger in South Africa, describing steel doors on every room, and says sharing her story may help others who have lived with violence.