Actor Hosea Chanchez Reveals He Was Molested As Teen
Trigger Warning: This story contains content regarding child molestation.
Actor Hosea Chanchez, who is mostly known for his role as Malik on BET’s The Game, recently revealed on Instagram that he was molested as a teenager. The actor shared an old photograph of himself on the social media platform and then also included several screenshots of iPhone notes documenting his experience.
“I’m Hosea Chanchez and when I was 14 years old I was molested BY my friend’s father. This man is a predator, preying on children who’s trust he’s falsely built through lies, manipulation, threats, and secrets,” Chanchez wrote.
“I hope this truth helps to stop child molesting predators from sexually assaulting more children. Pedophiles have no place in our society they hide in the open and rape children who are afraid to speak up because of shame, guilt, fear, denial and the thought that no one will believe them. I’m doing this to help parents and young children become aware of some of the signs and better protect themselves from sexual predators. (Swipe to read my TRUTH),” Chanchez continued.
In the notes, Chanchez admitted that he purposefully made himself forget about the atrocity and felt like no one would believe him if he had told them about it. He also said that one day one his friend’s father insisted on giving him a ride home, about a week or so after attempting to gain information regarding Chanchez’s sexual experience.
“He was using a false hyper-masculinity as a way to sniff out my comfort level about sex and privacy,” Chanchez wrote. He also claimed that the man would continuously ask him questions regarding his sexuality and how girls felt about him, but only when the two were alone together. Chanchez said that his friend’s dad never would ask him these questions when his son was around.
He also mentioned that he was always shy whenever the conversations would take place, which the actor said is the “perfect personality trait” for predators. “That’s how some predators start, by finding your child’s weak, innocent, shy spots and exploiting them through the lens of secrets, sex, masculinity, girls and trust,” Chanchez said.
Chanchez said that the man knew that his father wasn’t in his life, and he also told him that the actor was like a second son to him. He then went on to share that one day the man insisted that he give him a ride home. Chanchez said his intuition told him something wasn’t right, but he accepted the ride anyway. He then claimed that the man took him down a dirt road and told him that he wanted to talk to him about his plans for the future. Chanchez then claimed that the man then unzipped his pants and told him to trust him, prior to performing fellatio. Chanchez said that the man then told him that oral sex wasn’t the same thing as intercourse and if he told anyone he “would ruin my life and no one would believe me anyway.”
“I’m choosing to come forward with it now in hopes that my TRUTH helps to free someone else from guilt, and shame at the hands of a rapist, predator, and pedophile,” Chanchez said, before writing that he often wonders if the man is doing the same thing to other children. The actor continued his story by naming the man who is from Montgomery, Alabama.
On Thursday (Sept. 5), Chanchez took to Instagram again to thank everyone who supported him for coming out as a sexual assault survivor.
“THANK YOU to everyone for your support, the calls, texts, emails and posts, I’m HUMBLED. Before I wrote the letter I prayed and asked GOD to allow the message to be received by anyone who needs help, healing, and courage,” Chanchez wrote.
“Thankfully my prayers were answered. Thanks to every one of you for the positivity, encouragement, and love. I ran across this passage and it spoke to my soul, maybe it speaks to you also. The message is clear, forgiveness, accountability, honesty, and righteousness are the ONLY way,” he concluded.
