Alice Munro's daughter reveals her mother knew she had been abused by Munro's husband
One of the saddest stories I’ve ever worked on. Gerald Fremlin sexually abused Andrea Skinner when she was a child. When her mother found out, she chose him over her daughter. Her mother was Alice Munro. https://t.co/mnL3EBCTG3
- Richard Warnica (@richardwarnica) July 7, 2024
- The Toronto Star has a piece written by Alice Munro's youngest daughter Andrea Skinner revealing that her stepfather Gerald Fremlin molested her repeatedly when she was a child.
- Both her parents were aware of it, her father and stepmother when it happened, and her mother 16 years later. Her stepparents did nothing and her mother, after a brief seperation, returned to Fremlin.
- Fremlin pled guilty to the assault in 2005.
- All her siblings corroborate and stand by her.
- Her siblings believe this was an open secret in Canadian media
- The rest of the siblings still feel protective of Munro's legacy as a writer but want to discuss how sexual abuse can destroy families
- Andrea Skinner was the youngest daughter of literary icon Alice Munro
- Skinner revealed her mother's second husband, Gerald Fremlin, molested her when she was 9 years old
- Skinner's father found out shortly after it happened. He and Skinner's stepmother decided the best way to deal with this was to have her older sister go with her when she visited Munro to make sure Andrea wasn't molested again (this failed)
- Fremlin was also accused of exposing himself to the 14 year old daughter of a family friend
- 16 years later, after her mother told her about a short story she had read when something similar happened, Andrea wrote a letter to her mother explaining what had happened
- Munro briefly left Fremlin but returned after he convinced her Skinner was a homewrecker. He wrote letters to the family vividly describing what had happened and accusing Skinner of being an active participant. He also threatened to release photos he had of her when she was 11 which he said would show the world she had seduced him
- Her family decided to ignore the issue completely
- Skinner became estranged from her mother when she had children and her mother refused to agree not to bring Fremlin around them
- In 2005 Skinner filed a criminal complaint about Fremlin. Because of the letters he had written blaming her she had a strong case and he pled guilty to indecent assault
- Afterwards she became estranged from her entire family.
- In 2014 her sister Jenny reached out to explain that the siblings had been doing work to understand why she was estranged from them
- They have now reconciled
- Skinner never reconciled with her mother
source
Wow, this was a sad read and an all to common story. Also once again raises a lot of questions about Canadian media.