"Debilitated my body from feeling pleasure": Singer Victoria Canal opens up about facing sexual assault as 19-year-old

Singer Victoria Canal has opened up about the s*xual assault she faced as a 19-year-old. The singer, who turned 27 on August 11, shared a post on Instagram detailing the incident.

TW: This article has mentions of sexual assault. Reader's discretion advised.

Victoria Canal posted a carousel of images on her Instagram account on Monday, speaking about the abuse she suffered. She explained that she hadn't spoken about it in eight years. However, she revealed that she was assaulted by a stranger earlier this year, leading her to realize how the assault she faced when she was 19 affects her even now.

Canal wrote:

"This is something I've never spoken about publicly, and have been holding for 8 years now-it has plagued my body, spirit, and mind, in subliminal and overt ways, for my entire 20's. It was only earlier this year, when I was assaulted by a stranger in a rehearsal space, that something in my subconscious awoke (including many buried memories) and helped me start to understand the effects of what happened to me."

She added that she feels right to "be able to let it go" as she shares the incident publicly. Explaining how this incident affects her life years later, Canal added:

"This experience, which lasted a little over a year, has had a years-lasting effect on my intimate life. At the very end of it, this person verbally admitted to me (while I was in an extremely vulnerable position) that getting me in this position had been his plan all along-from the moment he saw my face on the internet—a confession that froze me in time, and debilitated my body from feeling pleasure and freedom for years and years."

Victoria Canal explained that her body showed symptoms of PTSD anytime she wanted to be physically intimate with someone. She revealed that it was only after the incident earlier this year that she realized the long-lasting effects of the abuse she had suffered when she was a teenager.

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More about Victoria Canal's revelation about facing s*xual assault

Victoria Canal at Los Angeles Chapter LA County Fair (image Source: Getty)

The singer shared that when she was 19, a much older man took her out of college and offered her the first professional opportunity. She added that she doesn't want to name the person or the organization due to the risk of a "financial loss or emotional terror a lawsuit would bring."

Victoria Canal added that while this man seemed a charismatic and loving person externally, he had a history of "damaging behavior." She also wrote that he has a set of enablers who cover his wrongdoings. The Drama singer explained:

"He would take me on walks, ask me about my life, slowly and surely introducing sexual topics... He would invite me to his hotel room to "record vocals", telling me how much he believed in me, only to then insist that I lie down with him... he would take my body into his and rock back and forth, and to my quiet 'not sure this is a good idea', he would say, 'it's fine as long as you don't tell anyone'."

She further continued,

"When I was asleep in my bunk, he would stick his hand in and touch me on his way to the back of the bus... he would, I later learned, take pictures of me without my awareness or consent... these behaviors progressed over a year, slowly keeping me more isolated in a highly unfamiliar and contained environment."

Victoria Canal further explained that she wasn't given a separate accommodation like the other singers on the project. Hence, if she had to use a room or the bathroom, it was always the said man's.

Canal explained that therapy and psychedelic treatment have helped her. She added that making music also helped her. The Spanish-American singer-songwriter is set to release an EP and a song, Body Behave, soon.

She also asserted that the man she is talking about isn't part of her current label, i.e., Parlophone Records. Victoria Canal wrote that mentors at her current label have helped and encouraged her over the years. She ended by sharing all the emotions she has felt over the years and expressing the strength and freedom she feels at being able to share everything publicly.

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