The ex-girlfriend of actor William Hurt, who died Sunday at age 71, detailed the alleged physical and emotional abuse she suffered during their more than three-year relationship in a guest column for Variety magazine.
“Bill snapped, physically shoved, hit and hit me, followed by tears, apologies, and he offered me expensive gifts,” wrote author Donna Kaz.
“When the beatings started, I dropped them. He said he was sorry. Perhaps I caused it. I only had to visit ER once. It wasn’t until many, many years later that I admitted to myself that I had been a victim of domestic violence.”
Hurt announced that he was suffering from prostate cancer, which had metastasized to his bones in May 2018, and said he was incurable at the time. But he fought bravely until he finally died on March 13th. He was one week short of his 72nd birthday.
He died surrounded by his family in his modest four-bedroom home in Portland, Oregon, where he has lived since 2015.
Now, after his passing, Kaz, who kept the alleged abuse a secret for 35 years before going into detail about it during a televised broadcast and in her memoir Un/Masked, Memoirs a Guerrilla Girl On Tour, speaks again about surviving the abuse. .
The late actor William Hurt (left) was accused of beating his ex-girlfriend, writer Donna Kaz (right), during their relationship of more than three years in the late 1970s.
In a guest column published in Variety Magazine on Thursday, Kaz (left) detailed how Hurt (right) “snarled, physically pushed, hit and slapped me, followed by tears, apologies, and he offered me expensive gifts.” She said his death caused her to face a series of mixed emotions.
William Hurt died March 13th. Since then, all the social networks, press and television have been praised for his game, his awards, his career. I agree with all of them. But I also have to put in a lot of effort so that the memory of him does not sit next to me and offend me again, ”she wrote in a guest column published on Friday.
“When I wrote this, I had to let it live again for a couple of minutes. And in that moment, there was sadness, regret, anger and a dream of reconciliation that will never happen.”
Kaz, 67, and Hurt began dating the actor in 1977, when she was 23, and his career was just beginning to take off.
She recalled falling “deeply in love” with Hurt, moving with him from New York to Los Angeles and spending her days swimming, reading poetry and making love.
“But our relationship quickly went into another cycle,” she explained, noting that in 1980, “in the midst of physical abuse,” Hurt “dumped” her. However, the couple remained in touch, seeing each other several times a year until 1989.
Decades after she began volunteering at a Los Angeles rape and battery hotline, Kaz realized that she, too, had experienced abuse.
“For the first time, I realized that I had been abused. When other volunteers pretended to be survivors, it dawned on me that I, too, was a survivor,” she shared, noting that after “coming to terms with what really happened between us, I severed all ties with Bill Hurt.”
Kaz kept the alleged abuse a secret for 35 years before going public and detailed in a TV interview and writing about it in her memoir Un/Masked, Memoirs of a Guerrilla Girl On Tour.
She shared how her relationship with Hurt (pictured in 2019) continued to have an impact despite taking steps to get over their relationship. “Victims of domestic violence also carry something else with them. They carry their abusers with them,” she wrote.
However, Kaz said that she continued to carry Hurt with her despite taking steps to get out of their relationship.
“You have to understand something about surviving violence. It is always with you. This is something you will never be able to handle. And just as you can never get over it, you incorporate that experience into the fabric of your life. It becomes a part of you,” she wrote.
“Victims of domestic violence also carry something else with them. They carry their attackers with them. Their abuser lives forever in memories of deep love that caused cruelty and harm. These memories will always be connected. They cannot be separated.”
Kaz shared how, in recent years, she had Googled the name Hurt along with the word “obituary” but her search “always came up empty.”
“I read once that he was ill, but made a full recovery. And then, a few nights ago, my phone was pinged with too many messages to be good news. My famous abuser was dead,” she said.
“I am surprised at all the people who are looking on Google for their abusers, waiting for the day when they are no more. Death humanizes people. When our abusers die, we may be surprised to find that they eventually became mortal people.
“In addition to us, they are also boyfriends, lovers, spouses who tried to change the course of our lives, leaving behind cruel remnants of ourselves that we will never forget.”
Kaz shared how, in recent years, she had Googled the name Hurt along with the word “obituary” but her search “always came up empty.” Pictured is an actor in the 70s.
William Hurt died a week before his 72nd birthday in his modest four-bedroom home in Portland, Oregon, where he has lived since 2015.
Kaz explained that Hurt’s death left her with mixed feelings, as they would never have a chance to come to terms with what happened between them.
“I doubt I will ever have the chance to reconcile with William Hurt,” she said. “I was lucky that I survived and defeated him. I’m delighted that I’m still alive to speak my truth.”
The author also encouraged other alleged survivors to come forward and share their truth, saying, “I want this to be a year where everyone talks about violence and abuse and works to end it for good.”
She expressed her hope that #MeToo will stay strong and she will never regret telling her story, noting that when she told her story, after decades of secrecy, the pain “was constantly in my heart.”
“I heard him ask if it was really necessary to write this sentence, and did it really happen that way, and was I exaggerating everything and using our relationship to earn myself some fame?” she said.
The writer claims that she “has no idea” if Hurt ever read her memoirs, but notes that he did not try to stop the publication of the book and that she “stopped hearing from him over 25 years ago.”
One of the last photos of William Hurt was with his youngest son Will, which Will posted on Facebook after his death.
Hurt won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of Luis Molina in the 1985 film Kiss of the Spider Woman.
According to a source close to the Oscar-winning actor, Hurt spent his last few weeks in excruciating pain as he refused to take opiates and break years of sobriety.
In the end, he only agreed to hospice treatment when the pain became unbearable, a close friend told exclusively on Wednesday.
“His death was not so much a tragedy as a gift,” the source said. “He experienced so much pain and suffering, but he left peacefully.
“He was strongly against the use of opiates because he had been sober for decades,” the source said. “That’s why he looked for alternative therapies. And he was fine for so long. He even starred in a couple of movies in between.
“But cancer got the best of him. He passed away from morphine just last week.
“We talked a lot last year and he was still himself,” the source said. “When he was on his deathbed, he was a little confused, but he was still very sharp, right up to the very end.”
His son Alex told there would be no funeral. “That’s what he wanted. My father wanted everything to be a secret.”
Hurt won the Best Actor Oscar for his lead role in Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1985. He was then nominated for the next two years in Children of a Lesser God and Broadcast News. He has also starred in films such as The Big Chill, Body Heat, and Into the Wild.
Hurt in his iconic role as news anchor Tom Grunik in the 1987 classic Broadcast News. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor but lost to Michael Douglas, who played Gordon Gekko on Wall Street.
Hurt won his Oscar for playing the role of Luis Molina opposite the late Raul Giulia in Kiss of the Spider Woman.
Hurt and Kathleen Turner blew up the screens in the 1981 film Body Heat.
He had four children: Alex, now 39, Sam, 32, Will, 31, and Jeanne, 28.
Alex was from his relationship with Sandra Jennings, Will and Sam from his six-year marriage to Heidi Henderson and Jeanne from his relationship with French actress Sandrine Bonner.
His first marriage to actress Mary Beth Hurt lasted from 1971 to 1981, but he had no children.
He also had a two-year relationship with Marlee Matlin, his co-star in Children of a Lesser God. Her allegations that he raped and abused her surfaced after the actor’s death.
“There was a tribute to him on CBS yesterday morning and it was so beautiful,” the source said, “and then they had to spoil everything by talking about Marley Matlin and the abuse she wrote about in her book.” .’
“He wasn’t so kind at times,” the source admitted.
‘It was complicated. I think he had demons. He had real demons and that’s what made him such a great actor. But as a person he was challenged. And he really tried.