Gabrielle Union Opens Up About Traumatic Experience in Candid Video

The actress had an inspirational chat with her Instagram followers on Friday night.

Gabrielle Union is sharing her truth with the hope of inspiring others.

The Bring It On alum took to Instagram on Friday, Jan. 27 to share an important message with her followers about supporting those suffering from trauma. In the candid clip, Union appears in her bathrobe as she winds down for the night and talks to the camera about her own personal healing journey.

The 50-year-old actress began the clip on a light note while doing her skincare routine and using a gua sha (a beauty tool that helps sculpt facial muscles.) "Does this work? I don't know, but I do it," she said of the beauty tool, before beginning her motivational dialogue, "But what I do know that works: giving a shit!"

Union then bravely opened up about her experience with sexual assault, which she has publicly talked about before. In the clip, she told the camera, "I was raped one time by a stranger at gunpoint at work. I was believed. He was apprehended. That was one time 30 years ago and I'm still pretty f----d up."

She continued, "How do you be the most impactful? How do you make people give a shit about young women and men—and men—who are experiencing unspeakable horrors? These folks are experiencing that horror over and over and over and over a day, until they decide, you have no value."

Getting to her main point, the Strange World star explained, "I say all this to say, trying to channel your trauma into art or into anything helpful, how do you turn the ugliest parts of your life into something beautiful is incredibly difficult. I think for some of us watching and witnessing maybe we could have a little bit more grace. It's hard. especially when you give a shit."

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She captioned the post, "Sometimes the truth isn’t pretty or organized. Sometimes the truth is just raw and unfiltered. Most importantly its best told by you. #MyTruthBeTold."

Fans and fellow celebrities all took to the comments to commend Union for sharing such a personal traumatic event for the sake of inspiring others.

Reese Witherspoon commented, "Thank you for your truth and for caring enough about others to share it."

"This is why I love you, sis.?????? The unfiltered moments are the most healing and transformative.?," added Ashlee Marie Preston.

Octavia Spencer, Union's co-star on Truth Be Told, also left a kind message under Friday's post, writing, "Thank you for your courage in revisiting a traumatic event in your life to help reach people through your art. @truthbetold is grateful to have you this season."

Union joined the Truth Be Told cast for Season 3 of the AppleTV+ series, in which her character tries to get to the bottom of missing young Black girls who are potentially being sex trafficked.

During a recent interview on Late Night with Seth Myers, Union admitted the role is "triggering" to play, but is ultimately "for the greater good of getting to create a bigger platform to let more people know that human trafficking; sexual trafficking is a global pandemic."