She was the first woman to break her silence on Harvey Weinstein and the suffering he's
caused countless women in Hollywood.
Since then she's made sure to never be silenced again.
Rose McGowan has made a name for herself as an activist over the past few years but before
then she was an upcoming actress with a promising career ahead of herself.
While the world seemed sure about her future, they had no idea about the dark and painful
past that Rose had been burdened with since she was just a young girl.
From being born into a chauvinistic cult, being homeless and losing her first love,
McGowan has had to endure a history that would have left most people down in the gutters.
Instead she has risen up, embraced her pain and used it to fuel her drive to stand up
for those who have been silenced.
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Young Rose grew up in Italy, but her childhood was far from normal.
Her parents had been members of the polygamous religious cult, "Children of God."
It gained popularity during the hippy age of the late ‘1960s.
Joaquin and River Phoenix also spent the early years of their childhood as part of this cult
together with their parents.
The cult combined the worship of Jesus Christ with' 60s-era free love, and preached a fairly
standard cult leader prophecy — the apocalypse is coming, and soon.
This doomsday prediction encouraged his followers to live hand-to-mouth rather than make long-term
plans.
They were also forced to cut out all family and friends that did not share the same belief
system.
All media such as newspapers, televisions, and certain books were also banned.
"You were cut off from your [outside] family.
You were kept in the dark so you would obey.
I was definitely a thorn in their side," and went on to describe how as an act of rebellion
she lit an entire bookshelf of bibles on fire.
Things soon took a dark turn in the religious cult when the leader began to encourage intimate
relationships with children.
This immediately frightened Rose's parents, and they knew it was their time to leave.
So one day, they packed up all their things and fled the cult with nine-year-old Rose
by their side.
They had managed to escape by the skin of their teeth but the cult had already made
its mark on the family and her parents soon split, leaving Rose to bounce between her
mother's and father's homes.
Despite having made it out, young Rose entered a new kind of prison, and her parents were
the wardens.
She described her father to be a cruel man with manic tendencies and her mother had a
habit of dating merciless men that often abused Rose.
At the age of 15, McGowan decided she didn't want to be dependent on her parents and legally
emancipated herself.
She was so determined that even though she had no money to her name, she represented
herself in court telling the judge why she would be better off without her parents and
taking care of herself.
The court went in her favor, and Rose was set free from her parents.
As good as this news was, it only meant one thing: she was officially broke and homeless
with no place to go and no one to turn to.
"I was homeless, I was on my own, and I was very lonely.
I was entirely focused on just surviving."
Since Children Of God was a polygamous cult, Rose's mother was not her father's only wife.
Men in the cult were allowed to have more than one wife, and women were required to
be submissive and subservient towards all the men.
This left McGowan with no real example of what a "normal" and healthy romantic relationship
was supposed to look like.
So when it came to dating, she was completely unprepared and didn't have an idea of what
to look for in a partner.
Vulnerable and alone, she began dating men who were much older than her.
"When I started having relationships with men I wasn't set up to understand that kind
of world.
At the time I thought it was cool, but now I think it's creepy." she admitted.
Rose met Brett Cantor , and she describes him to have been her savior.
He gave her a place to stay when she had nowhere to go and took care of her.
For the first time in years, she felt like she was finally happy and felt loved and safe.
Brett took away her pain and made her feel like she was whole again.
Her life was starting to feel normal, and with Brett by her side, she felt like she
could do anything.
Unfortunately, their bliss was short-lived.
One night, McGowan was on her way back to LA following a road trip to Seattle.
She called Cantor's phone to let him know that she would be home soon, but instead of
hearing his voice on the other side of the phone, Rose found herself speaking with someone
from the LAPD.
The police officer told her the tragic news that no girlfriend ever wants to hear, and
with that Rose's world was shattered.
Cantor had been murdered.
He had been found alone in his apartment with multiple stab wounds, and no one knew who
had killed him.
No one can imagine what it was like for nineteen-year-old Rose to be told that the man she loved was
dead, all the happiness that she felt was gone, and her safety net had been snatched
from right under her.
She says that Brett will always have a piece of her heart, and she treasures all their
times together dearly.
"The case is still unsolved, but I have been trying for years to remedy that."
She confessed.
Understandably, she became deeply depressed after losing the love of her life.
She felt alone and was afraid of becoming homeless again.
One day, when he was standing on the corner of the streets crying, a woman approached
her and asked her if she wanted to become an actress.
With no other options and no one else to turn to, Rose felt like this was going to be her
best bet.
So the new-found actress began booking jobs, managed to pay her bills and at the same time
discovered something that she was good at.
While her career started kicking off, she began dating rockstar Marylin Manson.
The couple turned heads everywhere they went, especially on the red carpet when Rose wore
the "naked dress," which left very little to the imagination.
They were together for around six years and even got engaged, and were as the actress
described a "legendary" love.
However, she admitted that she was unable to keep up with Manson's rockstar lifestyle.
"There is great love, but our lifestyle difference is, unfortunately, even greater."
After the couple parted ways in 2001, they remained on good terms.
In her book, Brave, she wrote "When he wasn't creating electrifying music, Manson was painting
watercolors of my Boston terriers while I was ordering glassware from Martha Stewart's
online store,"
Rose McGowan took to Twitter in 2016 with a shocking allegation: she had been assaulted
by an unnamed "studio head" whose predatory behavior was "an open secret in Hollywood/Media,"
and revealed that she didn't pursue legal action when a lawyer told her she'd never
win in court because she'd "done a sex scene in a film."
The world was shocked, and everyone wanted to know who the mystery man was.
As it turns out, back in the late '90s, just when Rose's career was beginning to gain traction,
Harvey Weinstein had asked to have a private meeting with her to speak about her career.
However, the business meeting with him suddenly took a horrifying turn when he forced her
into his "Jacuzzi room" and assaulted her.
After going to a lawyer who said she wouldn't stand a chance in court because of how much
power and money Weinstein had, Rose was paid $100 000 to keep her quiet about the assault.
However, he also went on to blacklist her name in the industry, which quickly put a
stop to her blossoming career.
With her film career stalled due to Harvey Weinstein's alleged blacklisting, McGowan
accepted an offer to join the cast of Charmed, a supernatural series about a trio of spell-casting
sisters, which had just parted ways with Shannen Doherty .
"It felt nice to be wanted after so much rejection and knowing I was blacklisted by my omnipresent
Monster,"
However, the actress describes working on the show as "soul-crushing and exhausting".
Looking back, she is shocked that she worked with only one female director during her five
years on the show.
The majority of the male crew "would snicker in disrespect when she would direct them,"
However, she went on to describe the irony of allegedly encountering relentless sexism
on the set of a show that was being made for and targeted toward a female audience.
She was once reprimanded for dying her hair red between seasons without receiving the
studio's permission, and being screamed at by an unnamed male director, who allegedly
called her an "idiot" and "b**ch" for accidentally exiting a scene in the wrong direction.
The actress claimed that she and her fellow cast members were overworked, underpaid and
exhausted.
A year after her initial 2016 tweet, McGowan confirmed that the mentioned studio head was
Harvey Weinstein, becoming one of the first actresses to come forward to accuse the disgraced
movie mogul of sexual misconduct.
Since then, over 80 women have shared their own Weinstein allegations, with the lengthy
list including the likes of Ashley Judd , Salma Hayek, and Gwyneth Paltrow.
In early 2020, Weinstein was found guilty of rape and sexual assault and sentenced to
23 years in prison.
Following the verdict, McGowan confessed, "I felt like I had about 500,000 [pounds]
lifted off my shoulders ... to have that burden lifted, it felt like my cells were dissolving."
Over the years, Rose has become an activist for women, and while she's faced backlash
for some of her opinions on the #metoo movement along with her political views, no one will
ever be able to take away the fact that she was the first to speak out against a monster
in the film industry.
She paved the way for other women to come forward with their stories.
There's no doubt that since the arrest of Weinstein, the film industry has taken steps
to make sure that women have a louder voice, and things have started to change for the
better.