This episode of the Secret Room deals with sexual abuse and a woman's path to recovery.

Please decide if today's show is right for you.

Hi Ben, my name is Jen and my secret is what happened when I sat down to dinner with a man who had

sexually abused me 40 years before.

Today the secret room presents breaking bread with my abuser. It was her brother that was coming into town and I asked her if I could go for dinner with them.

I do think she was a little bit shocked. Please join me in thanking our sponsor Home Chef.

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Go to home chef.com slash secret. Today my guest Jen takes us on her journey after a difficult childhood that was marred by sexual abuse,

her story is capped by the remarkable key to her recovery, breaking bread with her abuser.

Let's get started.

Hi Jen. abuser. Let's get started.

Hi Jen and welcome to the secret room. Hi Ben, thanks for having me.

It's nice to be here.

It's great to have you here.

And before we get started, I just want to thank you so much for

for opening up and sharing this difficult secret. I know it's I know it's not an easy story to tell.

It's my pleasure. Could we start by my asking you just to tell us a little bit about yourself?

Um, sure, yeah, so my name is Jen and I'm a 55 year old woman. I live in Winnipeg in Canada. I have a couple of lovely teenage boys.

My parents met like way back in 1965 and they actually only knew each other for about three months before they got married.

So it was love at first sight and they jumped into a relationship together and within a couple of years my brother was born and then 11 months later I was born so I'm very close to my my only older sibling and my parents marriage I you know it's obviously difficult to say if it

sort of was rocky right from the start but I think it certainly became rocky after my brother and I came along.

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