Kerrie grew up as an only child on a farm in Benoni near Johannesburg, South Africa. She said that “violence and turmoil was…everyday life” in Johannesburg. There were riots in the streets because of apartheid. Her home life was often filled with violence and turmoil as well. Kerrie’s father, Charles, was an alcoholic to the degree that he built his own elaborate bar in the family home. It was there that he spent most of his time. When his drinking got the better of him, Charles would go missing for days and sometimes weeks at a time. When he eventually returned, he and Kerrie’s mother, Gerda, engaged in what Kerrie called “verbal abuse” against each other. Charles would throw lamps, furniture, and whatever else was close at hand, but never physically abused Kerrie or her mother. After the fights, Charles and Gerda would not speak to each other for weeks. The silence tortured Kerrie. She was even too afraid to say good morning to her parents. Kerrie thought Charles being verbally abusive toward her and her mother was normal. Gerda had installed lockable steel doors in each room of the house except for Kerrie’s just so they could escape if necessary. At the time in South Africa, divorce was not culturally accepted.
Tension within the family continued to grow. When Kerrie was around 13 years old, her mother sent her to a boarding school to get her out of the house. When school was not in session, Kerrie’s mother took her to the movies to get her away from home. On June 21, 1991, when Kerrie was 15 years old, she and her mother went to a movie to escape. They returned to find that Charles had left and had locked the outer steel door on their house. Without her door key, Gerda and Kerrie located Charles at his brother’s house. Charles and his brother were both intoxicated. Kerrie was in dire need of a bathroom and ran through her uncle’s house without speaking. To Charles, Kerrie had disrespected her elders. Kerrie said that “this was the straw that broke the camel’s back.” After a heated argument, Gerda and Kerrie returned home. Within minutes Charles and his brother arrived at the home. Kerrie ran to her room and turned off the light in hopes that her father would think she was asleep. Kerrie’s mother quickly locked all the steel doors in the house to keep Charles away from them. One by one, Charles fired a pistol through the steel doors and made his way to Gerda and Kerrie. Charles was going to kill them both. Gerda retrieved a pistol from their gun safe and ran into Kerrie’s bedroom. They used their bodies to push against the steel door. When Charles was unable to force the door open, he began firing his pistol at the door. Charles’s drunken brother encouraged him to continue. Somehow all the bullets missed Kerrie and her mother. When Charles ran out of bullets, he yelled that he was going to get his shotgun from the safe and walked away from the door. Kerrie’s mother opened the door and fired a single shot down their hallway. The bullet ricocheted and struck Charles’s brother in the hand. Gerda ran toward the room where the gun safe was kept and Kerrie followed. As Charles was opening the gun safe, Gerda fired her pistol. That fatal shot forever ended the family turmoil and saved hers and Kerrie’s lives. Investigators concluded that Gerda had acted in self-defense.
Kerrie left South Africa in search of a better life and she found it. She became one of the world’s highest-paid actresses. In 2004, Kerrie became the first South African to win an Oscar for Best Actress. She won the Academy Award for her portrayal of a serial killer in the film Monster. Kerrie was the childhood nickname of actress Charlize Theron.
Sources:
1. “How Charlize Theron Overcame Her Dark Family Past,” Time Magazine’s The Interview, April 18, 2026, https://youtu.be/ndYSsk-P8bQ?
2. “Charles Jacobus Theron,” Find A Grave, Accessed August 2, 2026, https://www.findagrave.com/