White Lotus Actor Lukas Gage Reveals He was Sexually Abused by Camp Counselor When He was 11

In his upcoming memoir, White Lotus, Companion and Smile 2 actor Lukas Gage is opening up about a traumatic time in his life.

via: Pink News

Warning: This article addresses topics relating to the sexual abuse of a minor. Reader discretion is advised.

Lukas Gage has spoken out for the first time about being abused by a counselor at an acting camp when he was just 11-years-old.

Lukas Gage, who is best known for roles in TV hits including The White Lotus, Euphoria, and most recently Overcompensating, details the experience in his first memoir, I Wrote This for Attention.

Speaking to Amanda Hirsch on the Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast, the 30-year-old queer star explained that he first spoke to someone about the experience just three years ago, as he “didn’t even realize” what had happened constituted molestation.

“I didn’t even realise it was a thing. I think there’s a real stigma behind it, because I didn’t do anything,” he shared.

“You feel there’s a participation of you, and it wasn’t until I had a therapist be like, literally had to break it down for me like in my twenties. [They said] ‘You’re in your twenties, this person was in their twenties, would you ever do anything with an 11-year-old?’ I’m like, no. No. But that was a hard part to talk about.”

“I left my body,” he continued. “There was a feeling that I was a willing participant.”

Gage explained that he hadn’t spoken to his mother about the experience until he handed her a copy of his memoir to read.

“I sat her down and I was like, ‘Look, I hate talking about this. I hate having this talk with you. I hate having shame about it because we shouldn’t have shame about it. I just want to warn you, there’s probably a part that’s gonna be disturbing for a mom to read, but you did nothing wrong and it wasn’t because of a lack of your parenting or anything,’” he said. “It was hard for her to read.”

Speaking to US Weekly, Gage expanded on the experience of telling his mother, saying that it “killed [him] to hear her so hurt”.

“There was nothing she could’ve done to protect me. The world is a crazy, scary place, and you can only protect your kids so much.”

During his candid chat with Hirsch, he admitted that humor has always been his “favourite defence mechanism” and so he wrote about the experience at camp with a slightly comical edge.

“I talk about the darkest stuff in my life with a laugh and then I talk about the most mundane details (and) I’m super serious about telling a story about getting a coffee that nothing dramatic happens,” he said.

“Talking about the molestation, I feel like we [are expected] to be small when we talk about it. For me that was a way for me to gain my power back and to use a little bit of humility to gain my narrative of that story and not let it make me feel weak and small and shameful. Humour, I lean into it to feel strength.”

As for how he’s coping now, Gage agreed that he had “dealt with it” through having therapy, and being open with his loved ones. Now, he says he isn’t left “feeling like I’m a weird freak that it happened to. It doesn’t have this weight”.

Elsewhere in I Wrote This for Attention, Gage opens up about his turbulent childhood, being diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, and the “manic episode” that occurred during his six-month marriage to hairstylist Chris Appleton, which ended in divorce in 2023.

I Wrote This for Attention is out on October 14.