Maisie Williams Was 'Indoctrinated' Into 'Child Cult' By Father
Celebrity

Maisie Williams Was 'Indoctrinated' Into 'Child Cult' By Father

Maisie Williams is opening up about her "traumatic" relationship with her father.

On the latest episode of The Diary of a CEO, the Game of Thrones star talked about her past with podcast host, Steven Bartlett, saying that a lot of her childhood was "really consumed" by her father, who tried to "indoctrinate" Williams through a "child cult against my mother," who had managed to "escape" when she was 4-months-old.

"Ever since I can remember, I've really struggled sleeping. And I think a lot of the traumatic things that were happening, I didn't realize that they were wrong," Williams said, before recalling the way her "whole world flipped on its head."

The actress then went on to explain that she realized her experience wasn't the norm when she noticed her peers didn't appear to share the same "pain or dread or fear," adding that she remembers wondering "where does the joy, when does that come for me?" However, Williams said the turning point was a conversation with her teacher, who asked whether she was okay and why she didn't typically have any breakfast.

"I had so many people who loved and cared about me so much, but I had never been asked the right questions where I could really say what was wrong," she said, though she admitted that she tried to obscure the truth by telling other that "'these things aren't bad. You're trying to take me away from my Dad and that's wrong.'"

Since then though, Williams said that she's continued to work through the trauma of her childhood after coming to the conclusion that "there's never an end destination for that freedom" from the past.

"It comes from within," she continued. "When are you going to let yourself be free from the pain?"

As for any feelings related to her experience, the star said she's been "trying to do this thing where I stopped taking [the big things in life] personally," before saying that "what if I said it wasn't because of me that that happened?"

"If I wasn't there it would've been someone else," as Williams concluded. "It's not because something is wrong with me that these things happened when I was a child."

You can watch Williams' entire interview with The Diary of a CEO below.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at1-800-422-4453,.

Photo via Getty / Jeff Spicer