While filming Special Forces, Alexia Umansky told her dad, Mauricio Umansky, about her past sexual assault for the first time on screen.
During the Thursday, October 8, episode of the show, Alexia, 30, was brought into interrogation, where she spoke to Directing Staff about how she wanted to prove she had courage “after what happened” to her.
The DS asked for Alexia to expand on what she meant by that, to which she said, “Seven years ago, I was on a trip with some friends, and I was with people I trust. I was put to bed because I had a little too much to drink. And I woke up and I could tell something had happened.”
Alexia recalled how she “didn’t even have the power or consciousness to say no” to the person who assaulted her.
“I felt completely objectified. And I had a lot of pain and anger because of that. At the one-year mark, I decided that happiness is a choice and I was gonna choose to put it away,” she said. “But it still hurts.”
Alexia was urged to use the pain and anger in a positive way in the competition. She offered more insight into how she dealt with her sexual assault in the years since it happened.
“I was taken advantage of. My family — to this day — does not know,” she added in a confessional. “When you bring other people into it, it just becomes more of a conversation. And maybe a conversation is what I needed. But I just wasn’t ready.”
Alexia ultimately found the courage to speak to Mauricio, 56, in front of the other recruits.
“You don’t know [this]. I was taken advantage of by a friend,” she said. “You guys not knowing is not anything I ever wanted you to know, but I kind of wanted to protect you guys from.”
Mauricio, who shares Alexia with estranged wife Kyle Richards, told his daughter she shouldn’t have felt the need to protect them while she was going through a trauma. (The exes also share daughters Sophia, 26, and Portia, 18. Kyle is also the mother of daughter Farrah, 37, whom she shares with ex Guraish Aldjufrie.)
“Once you bring it to other people, it’s hard to … it’s not just yours,” she continued. “I feel like it’s not just your own concern, you know? It just becomes everyone else’s concern. But I have definitely healed. I’ve come a long way since then.”
Mauricio told Alexia he loved her as she received an outpouring of support from the rest of the recruits.
Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season 5 airs on Fox Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
