"Bravo, Christine, for telling the truth," concludes Connie Chung in an op-ed for the Washington Post. In the piece, the longtime journalist says she is "terrified" to do so, but shares her truth: that she was assaulted by her unnamed family doctor nearly five decades ago, a "dirty little secret" she has not shared until this year, at age 72. "What made this monster even more reprehensible was that he was the very doctor who delivered me on Aug. 20, 1946," she writes. The assault occurred later, when she was in college. She can't recall the exact date, but says the circumstances are burned into her memory. Then a virgin, she went to the "trusted" professional seeking birth control. She visited him at his home office and complied when he told her to undress below the waist for a gynecological exam, which she had never had before.
She writes the doctor then assaulted her with his fingers, telling her to "just breathe," until she climaxed for the first time in her life. "Then he leaned over, kissed me, a peck on my lips, and slipped behind the curtain to his office area." The aftermath isn't as crystal clear. She thinks she may have told her sister. She did not tell her parents, other than to tell her mother the drive to the doctor was too far, and they needed to find a new one. She told her husband at some point years later. The doctor has been dead for decades. "I wish I could forget this truthful event," she writes, "but I cannot because it is the truth. I am writing to you because I know that exact dates, exact years are insignificant. We remember exactly what happened to us and who did it to us. We remember the truth forever." Read the full piece here. (More Connie Chung stories.)