Shocking Revelations Post-Munro’s Death
In a poignant and damning account, Andrea Robin Skinner, daughter of Nobel Prize-winning author Alice Munro, has publicly alleged that her stepfather, Gerald Fremlin, sexually abused her as a child. Skinner claims her mother was aware of the abuse but chose to remain with Fremlin.
Childhood trauma
Skinner’s detailed account was published in the Toronto Star, where she recalled being nine years old in 1976 when Fremlin assaulted her. “One night, while she [Munro] was away, her husband, my stepfather, Gerald Fremlin, climbed into the bed where I was sleeping and sexually assaulted me,” she wrote.
Continued abuse and silence
Skinner recounted how Fremlin exposed himself during car rides and made inappropriate comments about neighborhood girls and her mother’s sexual needs. She revealed that when she was 25, she confided in Munro about the abuse, but her mother chose to stay with Fremlin, whom she married in the 1970s after her first marriage ended. “She reacted exactly as I had feared she would, as if she had learned of an infidelity,” Skinner wrote.
Seeking justice
At 38, after Munro praised Fremlin in a New York Times interview, Skinner went to the police with her allegations. Fremlin pleaded guilty to indecent assault in 2005. “What I wanted was some record of the truth, some public proof that I hadn’t deserved what had happened to me,” Skinner explained.
Skinner emphasized her desire for her story to be part of the narrative about her mother. “I also wanted this story, my story, to become part of the stories people tell about my mother,” she added.
Alice Munro, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013, passed away at the age of 92 in May, receiving glowing tributes, including from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.