Actors Catherine Oxenberg & Casper Van Dien Discuss Childhoods of Abuse  5/9/05

ACTORS CATHERINE OXENBERG AND CASPER VAN DIEN OPEN UP TO TONY POTTS ABOUT THEIR CHILDHOODS OF SEXUAL ABUSE

Oxenberg Says that Being Sexually Abused as a Child Led to Her 15-Year Battle with Bulimia

Van Dien Says He Kept His Sexual Abuse a Secret For 24 Years

BURBANK, Calif. – May 9, 2005 – In a candid interview with "Access Hollywood's" Tony Potts, "I Married a Princess" stars and real-life married couple Catherine Oxenberg and Casper Van Dien open up about their individual experiences with childhood sexual abuse. The interview airs on "Access Hollywood," Monday, May 9, 2005 (check local listings or www.accesshollywood.com for time and station).

Oxenberg says she didn't realize her bulimia was a direct result of sexual abuse because until recently, she suppressed her memories of abuse. "For a long time I couldn't understand why I was so self-destructive," she says. "Memories started to come back first through dreams and then through full body memories. I was doing something called holotropic breathing and the memory came back completely, I remembered who, I remembered how, I remembered everything."

The actress, who admits to throwing up her "breakfast lunch and dinner" says it wasn't until her memories of sexual abuse surfaced that she embarked upon the long and difficult road to recovering from her eating disorder. "It was the toughest struggle of my life," she says. "I really thought that I would never get through it. I would put myself in rehab and be fine for like nine months and then I would blow it again. The demoralization of living with an addiction is just horrendous...it's hell."

Van Dien says he hid his sexual abuse from family and friends. "I was molested when I was eight-years-old, by a woman who was 18 and I kept it a secret for 24 years," he says. "I was not bulimic but I became other things that weren't healthy. The real trauma I had was that I felt dirty, I felt ashamed for what had happened and I couldn't tell anybody. I didn't talk about it, I didn't tell my parents. I had awesome parents."

While both Oxenberg and Van Dien deal with the physical and emotional scars left behind by their respective pasts, the couple says they are doing everything possible to ensure a safe future for the five children they have between them. "We're really conscious about not letting the children keep secrets from us," says Oxenberg. "We talk to them about appropriate behavior. I know that it goes way back with my family and that the buck stops with them, that's not going to happen."

"Access Hollywood" is produced by NBC and distributed by NBC Universal Domestic Television Distribution. Rob K. Silverstein is the executive producer.

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