Entrepreneur and vegan chef Tabitha Brown recently opened up about her trauma in a TikTok video, in which she spoke about being sexually assaulted at 15. In the clip, the Cooking From the Spirit author detailed the heartbreaking event and shared how talking about the assault is helping her through her healing journey.
“I don’t know why this is so heavy on my heart, but I wanted to share this now. And I talk about this a bit in my first book Feeding the Soul, so it’s not new to many people, but whatever reason, God has placed it on my heart tonight,” she shared.
Brown then went on to detail exactly what happened the night of her rape, explaining how when she was 15 years old, she snuck out of her mother’s home, took her car, and then drove her two friends to a party at a hotel. She knew boys would be there.
“’Let’s go – let’s go meet boys,’ and we went to this party,” she reflected. “And there was a guy there who I thought liked me, I thought was cute, and I had known him, but didn’t really know him.”
She continued, “That night, I ended up being raped by him, and it wasn’t like a brutal rape…Sometimes people hear ‘rape,’ they think that it has to be one way. It simply means I said ‘no’ and he wouldn’t stop.”
Later, Brown revealed how her rape made her believe she did something wrong.
“For years I blamed myself because I had snuck out my mama’s house, I had taken her car and I went to this party. And I knew better. And in my mind I convinced myself, ‘That’s what you get. You deserve that. Like that was your punishment.'”
After reflecting and coming to terms with her trauma, she understood how she wasn’t at fault for what happened to her. “In my adult life, I realize — and in this healing journey that I’m on — that there is absolutely never any reason to be raped. It is never your fault. Okay?” she told her fans. “Doesn’t matter what you wore. Doesn’t matter where you went. Doesn’t matter what you did wrong, but under no circumstance is it ever your fault for getting raped.”
Brown went on to share more wisdom and takeaways with her followers.
“I don’t know who needs that, but it was heavy on my heart that you’re holding yourself hostage,” she said. “You’re carrying this guilt. You feel like you deserved it. But you did not. You did not deserve that. Okay? No one deserves to be raped.”
She also shared she kept the rape a secret for a long time until her faith and hearing from God, inspired her to release her truth.
“Up until five years ago, nobody knew. Only the two friends who were with me that night,” she divulged. “God gave me a word five years ago, and He told me my secrets were making me sick, and so I had to release it,” she explained. “So I say to you — if you’ve been holding it in for so many different reasons, whether you think you’re guilty or that you deserved it; embarrassment, shame, whatever the case may be, it’s time to release it. Because your secret is making you sick. It wasn’t your fault.”
