Lorena Bobbitt scandal was only half the sorry story
IT WAS a gruesome case that shocked the world, with the name Lorena Bobbitt becoming one of the most enduring punchlines of the time. Most people will only remember one detail – that one evening, Lorena grabbed a knife and cut off her husband John Bobbitt’s penis while he was sleeping.
She drove off with it and threw it into a field, where it was later found and reattached in hospital.
Unsurprisingly, the incident, in June 1993 at the married couple’s home in Virginia, hit the headlines and both husband and wife ended up on trial. But 25 years later and not many will remember much more than that.
This four-part docuseries, which recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, aims to shine a light on the messy truth behind one of the most sensationalised scandals of our time.
Lorena committed the act after allegedly suffering years of marital sexual abuse, but this was largely forgotten while she became an international joke.
At the time the Latin American woman was also terrified that she could lose her chance at becoming an American citizen if her husband got too angry one day.
But as the trailer for this series declares: “Now she speaks out.”
This series boasts an interview with both Lorena and John Bobbitt as well as other testimonies and interviews, including those involved in the case and celebrity observers such as Whoopi Goldberg.
“I didn’t choose to be in the spotlight, but there’s no going back,” says Lorena.