Crime & Justice

Amanda de Cadenet Reveals Sexual Assault at 14 Led to Years of Shame

Name: Amanda de Cadenet Reveals Sexual Assault at 14 Led to Years of Shame
Uploaded: 2026-06-18T19:20:00+00:00
Description: De Cadenet disclosed for the first time that she was sexually assaulted at age 14 at a party and kept it secret out of fear of being blamed. She described seeing her attacker on the street afterward and carrying deep shame, believing it was her fault. Only after getting sober at 22 and undergoing therapy did she realize the responsibility lay with the perpetrator, not herself.

Begin Again with Davina McCall · The Press Shamed Me So Much I Left The Country | Amanda de Cadenet · June 18, 2026

Begin Again with Davina McCall

The Press Shamed Me So Much I Left The Country | Amanda de Cadenet

"When I was 14 years old, I experienced a sexual assault at a party in the country in England. And I remember coming back on the train with my clothes all ripped, and I didn't tell anybody because I thought if I told my mom, she's gonna say, 'I told you, you shouldn't have gone out.'"

De Cadenet disclosed for the first time that she was sexually assaulted at age 14 at a party and kept it secret out of fear of being blamed. She described seeing her attacker on the street afterward and carrying deep shame, believing it was her fault. Only after getting sober at 22 and undergoing therapy did she realize the responsibility lay with the perpetrator, not herself.

About this episode

In this episode of Begin Again, host Davina McCall sits down with longtime friend Amanda de Cadenet for an intensely personal conversation about childhood trauma, addiction, recovery, and reinvention. De Cadenet, now 58, reveals for the first time that she was sexually assaulted at age 14 and placed in state care while simultaneously hosting live UK television, navigating paparazzi intrusion and tabloid coverage throughout. The conversation traces her journey from wild-child TV presenter to married mother at 19, through her escape from brutal UK tabloid culture that body-shamed her post-pregnancy and drove her to flee London overnight for Los Angeles, where she started over anonymously. De Cadenet credits her daughter Atlanta with saving her life by prompting sobriety at 22, and describes getting sober as the dividing line of her entire life. She details reinventing herself as a photographer and interview host, creating The Conversation TV series and podcast to give women a platform to discuss stigmatized topics like postpartum depression, grief, and perimenopause. The episode moves through her recent work as a certified grief counselor following compounded losses including her father's death, and her embrace of attachment-based grief therapy. McCall and de Cadenet connect over shared experiences of addiction, recovery, perimenopause, and the particular vulnerabilities of being young women in the public eye without boundaries. De Cadenet emerges as remarkably self-aware, attributing her ability to connect with anyone—from Jane Fonda to strangers—to lessons learned in a children's home that showed her everyone shares the same human emotional experience regardless of zip code.

Key takeaways

De Cadenet revealed she was sexually assaulted at 14 at a party, kept it secret for years, and only realized through sobriety it was not her fault.
She was made a ward of court at 14-15 and placed in White City Children's Home while hosting live UK television, with paparazzi stalking her.
Brutal tabloid body-shaming after giving birth to Atlanta at 19 drove her to flee the UK overnight, not returning for 10 years.
De Cadenet credits her daughter Atlanta with saving her life by prompting sobriety during pregnancy and keeping her sober to be a conscious mother.
She reinvented herself as a photographer by pitching GQ magazine while appearing on their cover, then created The Conversation TV series to destigmatize women's issues.
De Cadenet became a certified grief counselor after compound losses including her father's death, and now practices attachment-based grief therapy.
She describes life before and after sobriety at 22 as two entirely different existences, with recovery providing the first real agency she ever experienced.