There have been a lot of instances in Hollywood’s entertainment industry where celebrities came clean about the trauma they underwent during their childhood. The list of these celebrities included Marina Sirtis as well, the actress who skyrocketed to fame through her performance as Deanna Troi in the smash hit Star Trek: The Next Generation series.
According to Sirtis’ confession, she had to undergo trauma from a very young age — only 3, because the babysitter’s children used to molest her as a child. While that is devastating in itself, what made it all the worse was that this real-life tragic incident even led to her developing an eating disorder as well as severe psychological damage.
Star Trek‘s Marina Sirtis was Deeply Traumatized as a Child
In a candid turn of events, British actress Marina Sirtis, who is renowned for the outstanding performances she delivered in projects from the Star Trek franchise, came clean about her haunting past. During this, she confessed how she had been s-xually assaulted by her caretaker’s teenage sons as a child and suffered severe trauma due to the same.
Speaking out loud about it in an interview with The Sunday Times, she said:
My mom used to leave me with a baby-minder and it was her teenage sons who molested me. I never told anyone because even at three you know it’s shameful and you think somehow it’s your fault.
Heartbreakingly enough, this series of events grew even worse as Sirtis grew up and transformed into the incredible lady she is today.
She confessed that although her assault happened at a very young age, Sirtis couldn’t get over it while growing up. That said, she soon found herself suffering not only from severe psychological damage and trauma, but also from disorders that affected her physical health as well.
Continuing her revelations, Sirtis said:
I had an eating disorder for 20 years from the age of 13, which is a fairly common response to molestation. When I finally did get to therapy in LA – everybody in LA is in therapy, it’s a given – everyone in my group had been sexually assaulted at some point in their lives.
Needless to say, that is indeed tragic. While undergoing such severe trauma was one thing, suffering a serious eating disorder as a result of the same makes it all the more devastating. To know that Sirtis, the actress who boldly embodied Deanna Troi in TNG, actually suffered alone throughout that time makes it all the worse.
But that’s not all. While going through it at such a young age was one thing, Sirtis must have also felt that trauma coming back while shooting one particular episode of The Next Generation.
Marina Sirtis Must Have Relived That Trauma While Shooting TNG
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, there was one particular episode in the series that showed something similar happening to Sirtis’ character in the saga, Deanna Troi. This happened in the 12th episode of the fifth season of the smash-hit series, titled Violations.
In this episode, three Ullians — Inad, Tarmin, and Tarmin’s son Jev — embarked on their spaceship as historians and for the purpose of research. However, their visiting the ship leads to several characters suffering from violent hallucinations and even severe comas.
One of the people affected by this was Sirtis’ Troi as well. As seen in the episode, after a sympathetic encounter with Jev, Counsellor Troi faces a harsh hallucination and recalls a memory of her romantic meeting with Commander Riker.
While the memory itself wasn’t overbearing at first, it soon transformed into a critical episode for Troi as the Riker in her memory began to force himself on her. That said, this episode was inevitably about her character suffering from telepathic r-pe since none of this happened for real.
However, even then, Sirtis must have had to shoot it for real, which means she must have relived that nightmare of her getting molested as a child again in some form in this episode. This must have, of course, been incredibly tough for her to even go through.
Nonetheless, irrespective of how traumatizing her past may have been for her, it is incredible how Sirtis still managed to get through this and shoot this episode.
You can stream Star Trek: The Next Generation on Netflix.
