Hollywood actress Samantha Morton , a native of Nottingham, lived with her coal miner father, who beat her, from the age of three, and was in and out of foster homes from the age of eight, where she was sexually abused. Despite her challenging childhood, Samantha has now said that she is “furious” at the way society treats women with mental health issues as she opens up about her relationship with her mother, Pamela. , who died of cancer in 2018.
In an interview with Desert Island Discs (a radio show broadcast on BBC Radio 4), Samantha Morton, stated: “People criticized their choices. I just looked at this woman, who was kind, subservient, vulnerable, funny, beautiful and…did I say vulnerable? If she could write that in all caps she would. She was a saint in a way.” The actress grew up with eight siblings in a three-bedroom council house in Nottingham. After her parents separated, she lived with her abusive father while her mother, a factory worker, was in a relationship with another man.
At the age of eight, Samantha Morton was placed with various foster families, then a children’s home, where she was abused by its employees. Speaking to Lauren, she explained: “I always had this thing when people put my mom down. My dad had nothing positive to say about her. Many other people, the social workers, had nothing positive to say about my mother. There’s something fascinating about what I got from her , from not getting what I thought I wanted from her. I wouldn’t be who I am today without what happened to her, obviously.”
Samantha Morton Opens Up About Mental Health Issues Women Face
In the same interview, Samantha Morton said she was angry with the way her mother’s health issues had been dealt with , revealing: “I’m furious at the way society today behaves towards health issues. women’s minds. My mother had a very, very traumatic childhood and now she is fascinating, as a mother, as an adult and as a woman, to say ‘wow’”.
Samantha Morton went on to reveal that she had admired her mother’s strength in dealing with adversity in her life, continuing: “She was very zen, her attitude on life, cleanliness and being. Certainly, the person who treated her terminal cancer was very inspiring, but I wasn’t aware of seeing her when she was in a very bad way when I was very little. With her mental health issues, that’s why people were rude and mean. Women are not allowed to get angry if they have been raped or sexually abused. They didn’t talk about those things.” Elsewhere in the interview, she insists that she had “the wildest, most magical childhood” despite being abused.
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