Charlize Theron Fights Rape Despite Incorrect Claims She's a Victim  9/22/05

Charlize Theron is constantly fighting allegations she was raped as a child in her native South Africa because she's such an active anti-rape activist there.

The stunning Oscar-winner insists she was never molested, but that doesn't mean she has to ignore her homeland's rape crisis.

She explains, "Nine years ago I started an anti-rape campaign in South Africa and people say that I must have raped in my life to be able to do that.

"No, I'm a women and I understand that that's the reality for a lot of women and I have a great compassion for the pain that those women go through, so it's something that I have always been aware of and it's something that has always been an issue for me.

"I feel very lucky that I was raised a certain way where I feel that I have been given a certain amount of strength and I haven't been taken advantage of in my life.

"But it's not hard for me to look at those women and realize whatever happened to them. I see them with their kids and I see how it affected their children and how it affected their families.

"This bled into their everyday society. They went to the grocery store and had to face these people and that's the thing that sort of kills you - knowing that it affects every single aspect of your life."