Charlize Theron Has Been Candid About Her Difficult Childhood in South Africa

If you look at mega-star Charlize Theron today and consider her accomplishments as an actor and philanthropist, you may be surprised by her difficult upbringing. She has been candid about her childhood in South Africa, where she was born and where she grew up, but she doesn't often talk about it.

So, what happened to Charlize Theron as a child? She is close to her mother today, and that may be because they both went through a traumatic experience when Charlize was just 15 years old. Today, she continues to work as an actor, and she founded the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Program organization, but long before all this, she went through a harrowing experience.

In 2023, Charlize spoke with Town & Country and opened up about her experience as a child, and what led her to greeting her South Africa-based organization. Part of it stemmed from an experience when she was 15 years old and her drunken father came at her and her mother with a gun. She explained that he shot at them three times, but missed.

In self-defense, Charlize's mother shot her father and killed him.

"But I think it's way more complicated than having just one night of trauma in your life," she said at the time. "With or without that, ­gender-based violence is so in your face in South Africa and globally. It's hard to not be aware of these things just purely by being a woman."

Prior to that, in 2019, she spoke about the experience with NPR. At the time, she explained that her father "was a very sick man." She also said that she doesn't mind talking about the story or speaking up on the topic, because it's "about growing up with addicts and what that does to a person."

Charlize appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast on July 2, 2025, to once again share her story. She explained during the episode that she experienced "years and years" of not knowing what kind of behavior she would be on the receiving end from with her father.

"Whatever they're feeling that day or wherever they are, that's what is going to be the vibe and the energy of the house," she said, of living with an alcoholic father. "And that inconsistency I think was what affected me way more than just that one night."

Charlize became a mom for the first time in 2012 when she adopted her daughter, Jackson. She adopted her second daughter, August, a few years later. She made the decision to adopt as a single mom and, later, she even briefly home-schooled her daughters during the COVID-19 pandemic, per People.

As for Charlize's dating life as a working single mom, it's a nonstarter for her. At least, for now. She said on the Call Her Daddy podcast that, at the very least, she is not interested in dating someone else in the business.