Moment #21: Truddi Chase

Aired: 08/28/2012

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About This Episode
In 25 years, Oprah interviewed thousands of guests who overcame the impossible. Of all those brave survivors, TV Guide Magazine chose one woman as the most unforgettable. On March 21, 1990, Oprah interviewed Truddi Chase, a woman living with 92 distinct personalities. Truddi's condition—now called dissociative identity disorder, or DID—was caused by years of brutal sexual abuse by her stepfather that started when she was just 2 years old.

Truddi's story moved Oprah to tears on camera because she was just beginning to contemplate her own childhood abuse. "I had gone all the way into the path of truth for myself and also could relate to hers that much more readily, which is what happens when you open yourself up," Oprah says.

Truddi died in March 2010 at the age of 75. Her story encouraged countless men and women to break the silence about the sexual abuse they had suffered.