Who is Munroe Bergdorf? Transgender model has opened up about her rape hell, saying she was treated as ‘mentally ill’ when she transitioned to female
- The transgender activist and model will be on Late Night Lycett tonight at 10 p.m
- The 35-year-old model said the “demonization” of trans people led to her attack
L’Oréal’s former ‘face of diversity’ and transgender activist Munroe Bergdorf will join comedian Joe Lycett on his Channel 4 show Late Night Lycett tonight at 10pm.
The transgender activist who has been a trailblazing campaigner for trans rights revealed her “traumatizing” treatment during her transition, in which she was treated as if she were “mentally ill” in her recent memoir, Transitional.
The memoir, which was released in February this year, shares details of Munroe’s heartbreaking story of mental health struggles and toxic relationships before finding her community in London.
Appearing on ITV’s Loose women in February to promote her self-penned memoir, the striking 35-year-old model and writer bravely recounted her horrific ordeal when she was “locked in a room for two hours” and brutally raped by a man who stalked her after a night out.
The activist also blamed the “demonization” of transgender people for the escalating violence the community suffered, which led to her assault.
The transgender activist who has been a trailblazing trans rights campaigner revealed her ‘traumatizing’ treatment during her transition
Speaking to the Loose Women panel, Munroe said, “I had this encounter because society demonizes our bodies to the point of feeding men who find us attractive. It is so wrong that they do it in secret and often sexually assault us.
“I was locked in a room for two hours and raped, I was stalked six hours earlier, I met him on a night out and then he found where I lived and where I worked and raped me badly.”
In an interview with the GuardianMunroe also revealed that she was ostracized at school by her peers for being “too girly for the boys and (she) wasn’t a girl — or perceived as a girl.”
Munroe grew up during the Section 28 legislation, introduced by former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, which banned schools from ‘promoting’ homosexuality.
The fashion model told Thank you that the controversial legislation encouraged gays to “be ashamed.”
Joe Lycett, who hosts Munroe on his show tonight, came out as gay as a teenager, but now identifies as pansexual – the attraction to people regardless of their gender.
Munroe first made headlines after she was cut from her lucrative relationship with L’Oreal in 2017, after she denounced all whites as racist in a lengthy Facebook diatribe.
The activist also blamed the “demonization” of transgender people in the escalating violence the community suffered, which led to her assault.
Munroe said she no longer had the energy to talk about white people’s racist violence. Yes ALL whites’.
She added, “Once white people start to admit that their race is the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth…then we can talk.”
The French personal care brand confirmed it had ended its business relationship with the model shortly after her appearance in the ‘#allworthit’ campaign with Cheryl Cole and Katie Piper.
The British star grew up in the middle-class Essex town of Stansted Mountfitchet with hardly any black people around, with her white mother and Jamaican father.
The British beauty told the Guardian that her Facebook post was in response to the gathering of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia.
She said, “The idea that people should talk about the trauma and oppression they’ve experienced in a way that’s palatable to people who don’t experience it… I mean, I was angry.
“We were watching one of the most violent displays of racism in recent history. It was horrible. Of course I was angry, and I think I had a right to be.’
Munroe is also joined by actress Dame Joan Collins and reality TV star Gemma Collins on Late Night Lycett at 10pm tonight on Channel 4, live from Birmingham.
