High School Musical star Joshua Bassett says he was sexually abused as a child by a ‘much older man’
Disney star said that he’d ‘buried’ memories and only recalled them last year
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Your support makes all the difference.High School Musical: The Musical: The Series star Joshua Bassett has opened up about facing routine sexual abuse as a child.
The former teen star, who is best known for starring opposite Olivia Rodrigo in the Disney Plus spin-off series, spoke about the abuse for the first time in a new interview with GQ.
Bassett said that he had repressed the memories to the point where he only recalled them in 2020.
“I experienced sexual abuse a lot in my childhood,” Bassett said. “I didn’t remember that until last year, which is pretty insane. I buried it so far.’
“And when I was a teen, a much older man routinely abused me, and I wasn’t able to see it for what it was at the time.”
Bassett said that he used his new song “Set Free” to process the trauma, describing it as “an anthem for me and the sort of people who’ve held pain and power over me my whole life”.
He added that he plans to discuss the abuse further on a new podcast series in the hope that it will “help people who are experiencing that”.
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