This Broadway star is sharing her story of sexual abuse growing up in Fresno

Heidi Blickenstaff is currently in the midst of a national touring production of “Jagged Little Pill.”

The play, which previewed on Broadway in 2019, is a jukebox musical based on the Alanis Morissette 1995 album with text written by Diablo Cody. It received a massive number of Tony nominations (and two wins) and also a Grammy.

Blickenstaff stars as Mary Jane Healy, a mother who was sexually assaulted in college and is struggling with a drug addiction.

In an interview with People published Thursday, Blickenstaff said she felt “liberated” by the performance and shared details about her own sexual abuse, which happened while she was a child living in Fresno.

“I was groomed, and I was very much manipulated into thinking that behavior was normal behavior because we loved each other,” Blickenstaff told People. “It was very insidious, and it was not talked about in my family for a very long time because when it finally ended, I was only 7. And it had gone on for years.”

The interview has details of the abuse that Blickenstaff hasn’t shared publicly before, including its effect on her as a burgeoning actress at Fresno’s Good Company Players. As she told the magazine, “It was enough to ruin what should have been this safe place for me because I had a monster living inside of me.”

The Bee reached out to Blickenstaff on Friday and was told the actress had “no further comment.”

This isn’t the first time she shared her story publicly.

In 2018, Blickenstaff tweeted that she had been abused by a teenage cousin and that he had threatened her into not telling.

It was shared with the hashtag, #WhyIDidntReport.

This was during the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in which Christine Blasey Ford claimed she had been sexually assaulted by a teen-aged Kavanaugh while they were both in high school. That incident went unreported for 30 years, leading some to question its veracity.

On Twitter, users showed their solidarity with Blasey Ford by posting their own stories of abuse and harassment. For some, like Blickenstaff, it was for the first time. As explanation, she wrote, “Because I was four when it started and it would go on for years and I didn’t understand I was a victim.

“Because by the time I was old enough to understand, so much time had passed that I thought it was too late and I didn’t want to hurt/divide/upset my family. And he went on to do it again and again to other little girls.”

This story was originally published November 11, 2022 at 1:41 PM.