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Sunny Hostin recently held a conversation about domestic violence following the release of the new Chris Brown documentary. Investigation Discovery's Chris Brown: A History of Violence documentary aired on Sunday, October 27, providing a detailed overview of all the abuse allegations against International Love hitmaker Chris Brown and the legal proceedings that followed.
The documentary managed to delve into Brown's 2009 assault of then-girlfriend Rihanna and also featured an unnamed victim who alleged that Brown r*ped her in 2020 on Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs's Yacht.
Prior to the release of the doc, The View co-host and Safe Horizon board member Sunny Hostin brought up the topic of domestic abuse in the context of the documentary, to The Hollywood Reporter on October 25. She said:
"That was not an isolated incident. It only got attention because there’s a big name attached to it. And our goal is to say: This is happening to so many people and you are not alone."
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"Domestic violence is a very close, personal issue to me"- Sunny Hostin on her appearance on the Chris Brown documentary after-show discussion
Prior to the airing of the Chris Brown documentary showcasing the abuse and assault allegations against the singer, The View co-host Sunny Hostin had a lot to say about the topic in an interview on Friday. She told The Hollywood Reporter that domestic violence was "an epidemic hiding in plain sight".
According to the former public prosecutor, domestic violence did not discriminate and wealth had "little to do with many instances" of it. Sunny Hostin is a board member of Safe Horizon, the country's largest victim services nonprofit organization that helps victims of violence and abuse.
The TV host noted that Brown's abuse of Rihanna was not an isolated incident and only got famous due to the big names attached to it. The View co-host added that the sensationalization of the cases around celebrity abusers hinders the progress to curb domestic violence as the cases of ordinary survivors are not heard.
Hostin stressed that domestic abuse did not just happen with famous people like Rihanna. The 56-year-old added:
"It’s very important to know if it’s happening to a friend, a family member, it may even be happening to you. Because part of this is isolation, psychological abuse, financial abuse, sometimes sexual abuse is involved, as well as mental abuse."
Hostin spoke about how survivors told her stories of family members not believing them or even convincing them to stay with their abusers. The View co-host further talked about how people do not speak up sometimes and do not recognize signs. She called the enabling portion "extremely troubling". Sunny Hostin told THR:
"[Domestic violence] does thrive in silence and people do unfortunately enable the behavior by not pointing it out and by not talking about it,"
After the premiere of Chris Brown: A History of Violence on Sunday, Hostin hosted the after-show discussion on domestic violence. The panel included the likes of psychologist Dr. Carolyn West, cultural journalist Scaachi Koul, NO MORE co-founder Jane Randel, The National Domestic Violence Hotline CEO Katie Ray-Jones, and Miss Kansas 2024 Alexis Smith.
The discussion aimed to provide tools for survivors of domestic violence to come forth and let their stories be told. While talking about Chris Brown's assault of Rihanna to Scaachi Koul during the discussion, Sunny Hostin stated that although the incident took place 15 years ago, she still felt like it was just yesterday. She recalled:
"I remember being in the courtroom. I just recently had a friend take her son and a group of other children to a Chris Brown concert, and when they came back, I was sort of shocked,"
She continued:
"I said to her and to the teenagers, 'Do you know that he really, really hurt Rihanna?' They had no idea. Then, I showed them the pictures. The reactions were different. One 14-year-old was horrified, one said, 'Well, what if it's AI?'."
Hostin asked Koul how people could get the current generation to pay attention to something like this, to which the journalist replied that the kids weren't going to pay attention if they themselves weren't paying attention either.
Koul critiqued the culture's way of still engaging in the work of men who have abused women allowing them to make money off it, thereby helping "obfuscate the reality" of what they could have done.
According to a press release regarding her involvement in the show quoted by Entertainment Weekly on October 23, Sunny Hostin stated that throughout her career, she had been a "fierce defender of women and children". Hostin said:
"Domestic violence is a very close, personal issue to me as I reflect on my past as a prosecutor of these types of cases, and in my role as a mother and public figure whose actions inform and help shape the next generation."
She added:
"This issue is a prevalent epidemic which knows no socio-economic boundaries, so I am dedicated to expanding and continuing this crucial conversation. The more we know, the better we can help advocate for change as a society."
Chris Brown: A History of Violence, which aired on October 27, marked the launch of Investigation Discovery's third annual No Excuse for Abuse campaign. Investigation Discovery is also set to release a new docuseries featuring the charges against Sean "Diddy" Combs in 2025.
