John Stamos alleges he was sexually abused as a child by a babysitter
John Stamos has revealed he was sexually abused as a child, allegedly by a former babysitter.
In his forthcoming memoir, titled If You Would Have Told Me, the 60-yearold Full House actor alleges the abuse occurred when he was about 10 or 11 years old and that he didn’t tell anyone at the time.
“It was like you’re playing dead so they’ll stop. But it wasn’t totally aggressive … I don’t know, it was not good,” Stamos said in an interview with People magazine.
“I shouldn’t have had to deal with those feelings,” he added.
He said “it took me writing a book” to understand the gravity of the alleged incident.
“I mean, I knew, it was always in the back, and I do so much advocacy for the [survivors]. I felt like I remembered it slightly. It has always been there, but I packed it away as people do, right?” he said.
Stamos, who broke out in the 80s on soap opera General Hospital before a star-making turn in the sitcom Full
House, said he had previously considered coming forward while writing an acceptance speech for an award given in recognition of his advocacy work for abused children.
“I started to write it, and that’s when it really came out,” he told People. “And then I thought, ‘No, tonight is not about me. It’s about the kids. I’m going to pack it away until the right moment … Otherwise,
I’m a phoney fuck.”
The memoir, which comes out in the US next week, also reflects on a range of harrowing moments from Stamos’s life, including his alcoholism and DUI arrest as well as the death of his longtime friend and Full House costar Bob Saget.
The abuse only covers “a page or something” in the memoir, he said. “I didn’t want the headlines to be that, and I didn’t want the book to be over that.”
Stamos has a five-year-old son, Billy, with his wife, the actor and model Caitlin McHugh Stamos. “I’ll tell you, if I found out someone was doing that to my son,” he said, “that’s a totally different story.”
• In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International
and takes the workshop or “shop” class at school, where he is horribly bullied by a Grease-chorus of nogoodniks led by Buddy (played by the formidably tough-looking William Ostrander).
Arnie’s life turns around when he sees a rusty, beat-up old shell of a car in the yard of a malign old man who tells him it’s called Christine. He buys it for 250 bucks, thus blowing a great deal of his college fund, and finds a local garage run by a cranky old-timer (Robert Prosky), where he can restore this vehicle with leftover body parts in return for doing odd jobs. Christine emerges with demonic sleekness and sexiness, and this car suddenly makes Arnie the big guy around campus; he even dates hot new student Leigh (Alexandra Paul) although it becomes horribly clear that losing his virginity isn’t now the priority it was, and it is Christine, and not Leigh, with whom twisted Arnie is in love. But the car’s evil essence makes itself clear and brings into the plot a cop, amusingly played by Harry Dean Stanton.
Christine is a perfectly enjoyable tale of the macabre, which can be read as a satirical parable of that particularly male kind of arrested development which manifests itself in car obsession. And of course from our own 2023 viewpoint, there is another layer of irony in seeing this creature from America’s automotive golden age, and the opening sequence showing it being produced in a Detroit factory that is now a thing of the past.
• Christine is released in UK and Irish cinemas on 20 October.