Halle Berry has been a longterm supporter of the domestic abuse charity The Janesse Center, which runs six shelters to helps women and families affected by violence at home. Berry is helping raise awareness for the cash-strapped charity by sharing the very harrowing story of how she witnessed domestic abuse as a child. She said her dad would regularly beat her mom and that “I’ve experienced what these women have gone through.”

The 43-year-old actress has been a low-key volunteer on the night shift at the Jenesse centre in Los Angeles for years but has only now chosen to reveal this part of her life, discussing for the first time how her father beat her mother and how she escaped her own abusive relationships.

She hopes the publicity will help the six shelters run by Jenesse overcome the financial stresses of the economic downturn. In the past Berry has refused to talk about the beatings meted out to her mother by her father, Jerome Jesse Berry, who left her family in Cleveland, Ohio, when she was four. But she has said a boyfriend once hit her so hard she is still largely deaf in her left ear.

Last week, accepting a “leadership” award in Hollywood, Berry said she and her elder sister, Heidi, were still recovering from witnessing the violence inflicted on their mother, Judith, a retired nurse who was born in Liverpool.

“I saw my mother battered, and could not do anything to stop it,” she said. “My father was tyrannical, lashing out at her for no reason. I felt the effects that had on our family — I’ve experienced what these women have gone through.”

She said her mother was still working out why she took it for so many years. “That is a deep question, and I am not sure she will ever come up with one answer. I have one answer to anyone in a similar situation — get out.”

Berry never forgave her father, a hospital porter, even as he lay dying with Parkinson’s disease in 2003. He sold his account of their estrangement to a tabloid “for a pack of beer and cigarettes”, Berry said.

She wondered if her parents’ relationship had affected her past romances.

She said: “I never had to run to a shelter, but I did choose the wrong partners. Not always good men. Luckily, in recent years, I have been smart enough to hit the door when violence even becomes a possibility. That is something I will not tolerate.”

After two marriages she feels more settled with her boyfriend, the Versace model Gabriel Aubry, and their 20-month-old baby girl, Nahla.

A former resident of the shelter said she did not realise the woman she called Halle Baby, who told silly jokes to her children, was a film star.

[From Times Online]

I didn’t realize that Berry actually volunteered at the Jenesse center and thought she just donated money. That’s really amazing that she works with the people there just like any other volunteer. She also works with the Make a Wish foundation as she detailed in an essay she wrote for Reader’s Digest in 2002. Berry’s personal stories in that Reader’s Digest article are very moving, and you can tell that she’s committed to helping others and that she truly cares. She wrote that she was heartbroken having to meet children who were so sick, but that she realized she had to deal with it in order to help. “Most of these children are terminally ill, so when you’re granting their wish, you know you may be seeing them for the last time. There was a point when I thought, I cannot do this. Then I realized that before a child passed away, I was able to put a smile on his face. So I told myself it would be really selfish to let a little pain stop me from doing a lot of good.”

Berry’s story of witnessing abuse as a child gives me chills. Now that her dad has passed she probably finally feels able to talk about it. She did mention it in her Reader’s Digest story but didn’t go into much detail, writing “My father was an alcoholic who was very abusive to both my mother and my sister. He was never abusive to me.”

You often see Berry and her mom out together and you can tell that they’re close. One thing Berry said in Reader’s Digest was that she wanted to have children but didn’t know if she would be able to. “I desperately want children of my own, and hope I haven’t missed the chance.” Now she has a beautiful daughter, Nahla, 21 months, and a gorgeous partner in model Gabriel Aubry. I bet Halle’s mom is such a proud grandmother.

Halle Berry is shown at ‘Hollywood Reporter’s Annual Women in Entertainment Breakfast’ held at the Beverly Hills Hotel in LA on 12/4/09. Also shown are Hilary Swank and Eva Longoria. Credit: WENN.com