Domestic violence affects everyone — even Hollywood’s biggest celebrities

The singer has spoken up about the abuse she and her mom suffered at the hands of her father. “It is a hush-hush subject. Not everybody likes to wear it on their sleeve and talk about it,” she said. “It makes people uncomfortable, and there’s a lot of shame around it. But that’s why, for me, it’s so important for me to speak my truth and helping [sic] others to find theirs and to find their own hope in a hopeless situation.”

The singer discussed another facet of domestic abuse — the kind that leaves scars on the inside. “Abuse has several categories — emotionally, mentally, in other ways,” she told Larry King about her marriage to music exec Tommy Mottola. “For me to really get out of it was difficult, because there was a connection that was not only a marriage, but a business where the person was in control of my life.”

The actress spoke on behalf of the Jenesse Center, a domestic violence prevention organization, revealing a childhood secret. “I saw my mother battered and beaten many years of my life, and I felt helpless,” she said at a benefit. “It seems like I’ve overcome it, but I really haven’t. In the quiet of my mind, I still struggle. So while I’m helping these women, I’m helping myself through it too.”

During an Comicpalooza Amnesty International Q&A in 2013, the actor spoke about watching his father, who he described as a “weekend drunk,” abuse his mother. “No one escapes the trauma of those experiences,” he said.

The singer started speaking up about domestic violence after she became a survivor at the hands of Chris Brown. “It’s not a subject to sweep under the rug, so I can’t just dismiss it like it wasn’t anything, or I don’t take it seriously,” she told Vanity Fair. “But for me, and anyone who’s been a victim of domestic abuse, nobody wants to even remember it. Nobody even wants to admit it. So to talk about it and say it once, much less 200 times, is like … I have to be punished for it? It didn’t sit well with me.”

The 007 star has appeared in several PSAs to raise awareness about violence against women. In one called “Equals,” he says, “If I saw it happening, I wouldn’t blame her — I’d help her.”

The Aussie actress is a UN goodwill ambassador for the Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the face of their “Say no to violence against women” campaign. “One in three women may suffer from abuse and violence in her lifetime,” she said in a statement. “This is an appalling human rights violation, yet it remains one of the invisible and under-recognized pandemics of our time.”

As honorary chair of the Avon Foundation, Witherspoon helped raise awareness of domestic violence and launched the Refuge campaign Four Ways to Speak Out. “There remains what can seem like an impenetrable wall of silence around violence,” she said, “and we must all play a role in breaking this silence.”

This actress started the Salma Hayek Foundation to support organizations helping victims of domestic violence. “No woman has to be a victim of physical abuse,” she said. “Women have to feel like they are not alone.”

The Law and Order: SVU star founded the Joyful Heart Foundation and spearheaded the NO MORE campaign against domestic violence. “Society continues to misplace shame and blame on survivors,” she said. “That has to end.”

In a 2015 article for The Guardian, Lennox described why feminism is so important in the face of a world where women are routinely the victims of violence. “Imagine a world where every female can actually realize her right to live free from violence, to go to school, to participate in decisions and to earn equal pay for equal work,” she wrote. “Action is what is required, whether it be educational, societal, political or personal. We need to become the change we want to see, by participation and action.”