Oprah Threw Me A Lifeline

One man’s journey to overcoming the devastation of sexual abuse.

- Stevo Johnson

AT THE MERE AGE OF 7, I was molested in the front seat of an automobile. What impacted me most was not what happened in those minutes of violation—I’m not sure just how long it took—but what unfolded days later. I began to live my entire life in a hole. I became cold and broken, even as I matured, and my story would make Moonlight, which won last year’s best picture Oscar, seem uneventful.

If you’re speechless that a boy can reach manhood and still be traumatized by what occurred all those years ago, try living half of your existence in the silent fear that constantly haunts your dreams, cripples your existence and breaks your own heart.

I appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2010, along with Tyler Perry and approximately 200 other men who had been sexually abused. I was one of only a few Black men in the audience. When the cameras were off, Oprah took me in her arms and held me like her own baby, crying on my shoulder. It was an experience that helped to preserve my life. The love she showed me at that moment was without limit; it was nonjudgmental. It seemed almost God-like, especially since the doors of the church had slammed in my face. The heart of Oprah gave me inspiration.