Charlize Theron, an Oscar-winning actor, has shared her account of the night her mother shot and killed her father, Charles Theron in 1991, while he was on a drunken rampage. She was 15 when she witnessed her mother, Gerda Jacoba Aletta Maritz, shoot her father in self-defense. Theron revealed that she no longer feels "haunted" by the incident and is open about it in an effort to help other survivors of domestic abuse. She described her father as a "full-blown functioning drunk" who was abusive and expressed her desire to help others who have been directly impacted by this incident. The incident occurred during Theron's turbulent childhood in South Africa and the chaos that followed her father's death.