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Charlize Theron has come a long way since her crazy childhood in Benoni.

Despite carrying the trauma of her alcoholic father being shot by her mother right in front of her, she’s climbed the Hollywood ranks, acting in blockbuster after blockbuster, and rising to Oscar-winning status.

Now, she’s a celebrated actress and model with a three-decade-long career and an impressive net worth to show for it.

Beginning with her first role in the B-film Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995), which was ultimately three seconds of screen time in a non-speaking part, to winning the Best Actress Oscar for her iconic performance in Monster (2003), Charlize has managed to rack up some good, solid dosh to put behind her name.

As one of the highest-paid entertainers in the world, the 47-year-old has amassed a staggering $170 million fortune according to celebritynetworth.com. In rands, that makes her a billionaire, with a net worth of over R3,2 billion.

Hello! Magazine notes that not only does the Oscar-winner have a lengthy list of movies under her belt, but she’s also a well-paid brand endorser for companies like Raymond Weil and Christian Dior.

 

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Raised on a farm outside Benoni, Charlize was mostly brought up by her mother since her father was an absent alcoholic. Until he was shot dead in front of her by her own mother in self-defence when she was 15.

Charlize is not afraid to talk about the darkest chapter of her life because she wants others going through a similar situation to feel like they’re not alone, noted Today. This is what she said on Terry Gross’ NPR’ show Fresh Air:

“This family violence, this kind of violence that happens within the family, is something that I share with a lot of people,” she said. “I’m not ashamed to talk about it because I do think that the more we talk about these things, the more we realize we are not alone in any of it. I think, for me, it’s just always been that this story really is about growing up with addicts and what that does to a person.”

Her father Charles had come home drunk one night carrying a gun when everything suddenly unravelled:

“My father was so drunk that he shouldn’t have been able to walk when he came into the house with a gun,” Theron said. “My mom and I were in my bedroom leaning against the door because he was trying to push through the door. So both of us were leaning against the door from the inside to have him not be able to push through.

“He took a step back and just shot through the door three times. None of those bullets ever hit us, which is just a miracle. But in self-defense, she ended the threat.”

As a mother of two children herself, Charlize is grateful that her mother swiftly moved her out of that space of trauma – getting them both a one-way ticket to Los Angeles in 1994 so that Charlize could properly kickstart her modelling career.

But she says she still carries the trauma of having an alcoholic father:

“The day-to-day unpredictability of living with an addict is the thing that you sit with and have kind of embedded in your body for the rest of your life, more than just this one event of what happened one night,” she said. “I think our family was an incredibly unhealthy one. And all of it, I think, scarred us in a way. Of course, I wish what happened that night would have never happened. It’s unfortunately what happens when you don’t get to the root of these issues.”

The mother-daughter duo faced a little hardship in America, until finally, Charlize’s big break came after getting discovered by the talent manager called John Crosby while having a screaming match with a bank teller in LA. She was introduced to a bunch of people in the modelling industry and the rest is history.

Since then, Charlize has dropped her Benoni accent and made a big Hollywood name for herself, starring in a plethora of hits including, but not limited to, The Italian Job, Bombshell, Hancock, and most recently, the latest installment of the Fast and the Furious franchise.

 

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She’s also got a new bo-thang, so things are really looking up and up for this Benoni broad.

[source:hellomagazine]