![]() ![]() He had an epiphany of sorts after moving here. Over time, though - and in part through reporting - he did. “As a victim of child-sexual assault, I carried that burden of shame and guilt, and I felt dirty as a victim that it happened to me, and I didn’t want to share that with the public,” he said. It took him a while to come to terms with the sexual abuse, and to talk about it openly. ![]() I kept chasing that escape.”īy the time Lee arrived in Phoenix he was sober - he got clean on Feb. So by the age of 15, when I was given the opportunity to try a drug like cocaine to escape, I kept chasing that feeling. Every time I would make a mistake, he would assault me. ![]() “And I realized it was the trauma I experienced as a young child, being repeatedly sexually abused by my piano teacher every Friday during piano lessons. Very similar to, like, ‘Cruel Intentions,’ for those who remember that movie, right? People ask, how did you get involved in that? And it really wasn’t until I came to Arizona and did some intense therapy about five years into my recovery - and I’m going on nearly a decade. “I started using drugs at the age of 15,” he said. But it took a while for him to get to why. So the question I got was, how did someone like you end up using drugs?” My parents never drank, I never saw my parents use drugs. “I went to private Catholic schools, I was playing international soccer as a teenager overseas for some time, so from the outside world it looked like I had everything. “I grew up in Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, in Orange County, California - truly, I call it the eighth world wonder, it’s that beautiful,” Lee said. MORE: Brandon Lee says why he's leaving Channel 3 But it’s compelling, and never sounds rehearsed. It’s clearly one that he’s told a lot of times already, and plans to tell more - he hits some of the same notes in different interviews. And he is enormously committed to telling his story. He’s as handsome and charismatic as a movie star, and never breaks your (or the viewer’s) gaze while talking. In person, it’s easy to see why Lee was a hit at Channel 3 and at other stops (New York, Atlanta) along the TV-journalism trail. “Some people are like, I can’t believe you went that far,” Lee said on a recent visit to Phoenix. "But to me, it’s like, I need to, because I don’t believe in writing a memoir if you are not going to uncover every scar.” It’s been a long journey, one that Lee chronicles in his new book, “Mascara Boy.” He goes into great detail about being sexually abused as a child, and how that led to drug addiction - experiences he has shared with viewers and now, in a more personal way, with readers. He left, in many ways, not to find a bigger or better paying job. Typically when a television news anchor leaves Phoenix, it’s to work in a bigger market.īrandon Lee’s exit, from Channel 3 (KTVK-TV) in November of 2018 after about five years at the station, was different. Watch Video: Former Phoenix newscaster opens up about drugs, addiction ![]()
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