Selling Sunset’s Mary Fitzgerald Bonnet revealed she’s still traumatized by the sexual assault she suffered a decade ago.
The 44-year-old reality TV star shared her heartbreaking story in her new memoir, Selling Sunshine.
In the sixth chapter of her autobiography, called Rock Bottom, she details the attack, which occurred 10 years ago, during Memorial Day weekend, after accepting an invitation from a friend of her friend Amanza Smith, long before they became co-workers at the Oppenheim Group.
A man she calls Joe invited her to his apartment in Los Angeles, where another friend she knew better would join them and they would all hang out with a larger group of friends.
But when she arrived at Joe’s house, it was just the two of them and he gave her a glass with a “bright blue liquid” inside, claiming it was a vodka cocktail, which caused her to quickly pass out.
Selling Sunset’s Mary Fitzgerald Bonnet reveals details of her sexual assault and teenage pregnancy in new memoir
“When I woke up, I was in Joe’s bed, with my arms pressed against his mattress and my pants around my ankles,” she wrote. “He was on top of me and inside me.”
Mary said she ran out of the apartment “crying and shaking” and went into “total survival mode.”
After recalling the assault, she writes about how she coped with it and learned to, if not completely overcome it, at least deal with the repercussions it had on her life.
“The repercussions of that night still haunt me,” she wrote. “I never go to the homes of people I don’t know. I won’t be alone with any man I haven’t been friends with for at least five years or who is 100 percent gay, so I know I’m safe.”
After the assault, her friends, like Amanza, who at the time was dating Taye Diggs, helped her.
“I ended up going to New York with both of them immediately afterward,” he said. People.
“They knew I needed to get out of there and live in a new environment and feel safe.”
Jason Oppenheim, whom she was already dating at the time, was also a big part of her recovery.
She also eventually told her husband, Romain Bonnet, 29, about the assault and said he was “shocked.” “He said, ‘Oh, honey, I’m so sorry you went through that,'” she recalled. “I mean, any good husband would do that. He’s been very supportive.”
“When I told him, he was a great friend, he gave me a lot of comfort and protection,” she said.
She eventually told her husband, Romain Bonnet, 29, about the attack, saying he was “shocked.”
“He said, ‘Oh, babe, I’m sorry you went through that,'” she recalled. “Any good husband would do that. He’s been very supportive.”
She continued: ‘Then, when I’ve had problems, because with sex, I unconsciously and involuntarily jump and those things if they touch me and I don’t expect it, he’s been very supportive and in that way he tries not to take it personally and understands that it’s just a trigger.’
“It still affects me,” Bonnet admitted. “It’s something that will probably never go away completely.”
“The hardest thing was that I blocked a lot of it out in order to survive, so I had to go back, relive it, talk about it and try to remember how I felt,” she explained.
Ultimately, Mary hopes that by exposing the struggles she has endured she can convey to others that “there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”
The 44-year-old reality TV star hopes that by revealing the struggles she has been through, she will convey to others that “there is a light at the end of the tunnel.” Seen here in 2023
“There were many days where I would cry and say, ‘Why does it have to be so hard?’ but I didn’t give up,” she said. We weeklyadding, ‘“I wanted to give hope to other people.”
In the book, Mary also writes about her recent fertility struggles after suffering a miscarriage last year, saying she wants “the bad thing that happened to me to help other people.”
And although she was very candid in her memoirs, there were some things she left out.
“There were a couple of things I left out that really struck me,” because she didn’t want to “hurt or embarrass anyone I love,” particularly her son Austin, 27.
Mary became pregnant at 15 and writes about how people in the Indiana town where she grew up shunned her.
“Things happen for a reason,” he said.
“Everywhere I went, I was like a baby with a baby and I was judged. It was very painful, but because of that I can deal with the criticism we get on the show. At the time I didn’t know that it was preparing me and toughening my skin.”
As Selling Sunset fans know, Mary and Romain have been trying to have a baby and have had to deal with a miscarriage and several rounds of IVF along the way.
Selling Sunshine: Surviving Teenage Motherhood, Thriving in Luxury Real Estate, and Finally Finding My Voice hits bookstores September 24; she is seen with her son
“There were a lot of days where I was crying and like, ‘Why does it have to be so hard?’ But I didn’t give up,” she told Us Weekly, adding, “I wanted to give other people hope.” Pictured here with husband Romain Bonnet in 2022
In the book, Mary also writes about her recent fertility struggles after suffering a miscarriage last year, saying she wants “the bad thing that happened to me to help other people.”
As for the message she hopes fans get from her book, she said she hopes they know to “keep moving forward.”
“Whatever you’re going through, you’ll get through it, just like everything else in your life. Just keep believing in yourself because I didn’t think I’d get to where I am now either,” she said.
Keep a positive attitude. Get up and be happy. Appreciate all the good things, because they will come.
Selling Sunshine: Surviving Teenage Motherhood, Thriving in Luxury Real Estate, and Finally Finding My Voice, hits bookstores September 24.