Simone Biles Just Opened Up About the First Time She Realised She was Assaulted

From Women's Health

Simone Biles just opened up about realising she was sexually abused by former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar for the first time since coming forward a little over a year ago.

In the debut episode of YouTube series 'If I Could Tell You Just One Thing,' Priyanka Chopra Jonas asks the 22-year-old Olympic gold medalist when she knew she was abused.

Simone's response? 'I called [my friend] and I asked her the definition of 'sexually abused,' because some of my other friends, they had it worse than me.' Biles continues, 'She said, 'If he did that and that, you've been sexually abused.''

Even so, Simone brushed it off because she wasn't 'willing' for the world to see her as a sexual assault survivor instead of 'Simone the gymnast.'

Unfortunately, by denying and burying this experience, Simone became increasingly more depressed-to the point where, as she explains to Priyanka, she never left her room. 'I was sleeping all the time and I told one of my lawyers, I said, 'I sleep all the time because it's the closest thing to death.''

It took until she read a story about a friend coming out about assault for Simone to share what truly happened to her. The first person she told? Her mum. 'Then we had detectives come and stuff like that, and that was the moment I realised,' Simone says.

At this point in the episode, you want to reach out and tell Simone how sorry you are-because no one should have to endure such an experience. Which is exactly what Priyanka does as Simone responds, 'It's okay. It's a lot better now.' That's probably due in part to Simone's brave dedication to therapy, which calls 'everything."' And that's not the athlete's first time being open about her treatment.

After publicly sharing her story on social media in January 2018, Simone appeared on Good Morning America, where she said,'I still go to therapy, and I'm on anxiety medicine now because I had a lot of ups and downs throughout the year and trying to figure out what was wrong.'

Even after all she's been through, and what she still endures because of her experience, she has the courage to face vulnerability in the face and openly share her reality with mental illness.

Now that's strong.