Charlize Theron used to pretend her father had died in car crash because she was too traumatised to tell the truth - that her mother had shot him dead.
Charlize Theron used to lie to people about her father's death.
The 'Monster' actress was just 15 when her alcoholic, abusive dad returned to their home near Johannesburg, South Africa, and started firing bullets through the locked front door shouting "I'm going to kill you".
As the teenage Charlize cowered in a bedroom, her mother picked up a gun and shot her husband dead in what courts later ruled was an act of self-defence.
Charlize, now 33, said: "Everything changed for me the day my father died. Years ago I used to cover it all up and say he died in a car accident.
"I have now come to terms with it and have been able to move on. This was so long ago in my life and my life, my emotions and the pain are not stuck in this one event.
"For me, this thing happened so long ago and I just really wish people could move on from it. I don't live in the past. When I read headlines about me saying, 'When she was 15 her mother shot her father,' it's very sensational for me."
Charlize admits her father's death was traumatic, but insists it hasn't had a negative effect on her life.
She told Britain's Daily Mail newspaper: "It happened 18 years ago. Since then I've had a complete, full life and if I've been living the past 18 years in the past because of one event that happened in my life someone should put a gun to my head and put me out of my misery because that's a waste of my life.
"I am 33 and I have had a much bigger life than that one event." | 
