TODAY.AZ / Arts & Entertainment

Gabriel Byrne reveals he was sexually abused while attending Irish seminary school

22 January 2010 [10:00] - TODAY.AZ
"In Treatment" star Gabriel Byrne, who plays a psychiatrist helping other people with their mental problems, is dealing with his own very dark issue of sexual abuse.

While appearing on the Irish TV show "The Meaning of Life," the actor revealed that Christian Brothers in Ireland abused him in school when he was an 11-year-old altar boy.

"There were certain boundaries, sexual boundaries, that were crossed," he said. "It was a known and admitted fact of life amongst us that there was this particular man, and you didn't want to be left in the dressing room with him.

"I didn't think it severely impacted me at the time. But I suppose when I think about my later life, and how I had difficulties with certain issues, there is the real possibility they could have been attributable to that."

Byrne, 59, is divorced from actress Ellen Barkin. They have two sons.

The actor said the abuse haunted him for a long time.

"It took many years to come to terms with it," he said, "and to forgive those incidents that I felt had deeply hurt me."

/NY Daily News/
URL: http://www.today.az/news/entertainment/59929.html

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