Daughter of Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro publishes report on sexual abuse

Munro remained married to Fremlin until his death in 2013. “She was adamant that whatever had happened was a matter between me and my stepfather,” Skinner wrote. “It had nothing to do with her.”

In the essay, Skinner described the first sexual assault, which occurred during a 1976 visit to her mother and stepfather. During subsequent visits, Fremlin spoke obscenely to her, exposed herself, and masturbated in front of her. Skinner struggled with bulimia, migraines, and insomnia throughout her adolescence, and told her mother about the abuse at age 25.

The next time she spoke to her mother, Skinner wrote, Munro focused on her own sense of personal violation and seemed “incredulous” that Skinner described how hurt she had been by the abuse. Munro told Skinner about “other children with whom Fremlin maintained ‘friendships’, emphasizing her own sense of personal betrayal.”

Skinner became estranged from her family in 2002 after telling Munro she would not let Fremlin near her children. (She eventually reconnected with her siblings in 2014.) After reading a 2004 newspaper article in which Munro spoke glowingly about her marriage, Skinner wrote, she decided she could no longer keep the abuse a family secret. She contacted Ontario police and passed on Fremlin’s letters. He was charged with sexual assault in 2005 and pleaded guilty.

Skinner hoped this would force the public to confront her experience, but “my mother’s fame caused the silence to persist.” The secrecy extended beyond the family, Skinner wrote: “Many influential people learned some of my story, but continued to support and add to a narrative they knew to be false.”

When asked for comment by the Washington Post, Skinner wrote: “I feel like the #metoo movement has changed the way we talk and think about shame and silence. We’re fed up with the way things have been.”

“I’m very grateful to people like Dylan Farrow who spoke out at a time when it was extremely dangerous. The brave people who dared to speak the truth when the public was much less informed about trauma paved the way for people like me. I really want to pave that way for many, many others.”

Readers were shocked by the news, with some saying they would find it difficult to read Munro’s work again. (Representatives of Penguin Random House Canada had not responded to a request for comment as of press time.)

“The news about Alice Munro is so completely and tragically consistent with the world she conjured up in her stories – all those young people betrayed and sabotaged by the adults who were supposed to care for them,” novelist Jess Row wrote on the social media site X. “It is the most terrible feeling of recognition.”

“This is devastating,” Tajja Isen, editor at Canadian magazine Walrus, said on X. “I have enormous respect for Andrea for writing this, especially in the midst of a flood of articles – including mine just last week – that are missing this part of her mother’s legacy.”

“At some point, I’m sure someone will write the article saying we’re going to depose Munro, but I feel like this revelation only enriches and deepens my understanding and relationship with her work,” journalist Michelle Dean said on X. “I just wish it had happened sooner, because Andrea Skinner doesn’t deserve to pay this price.”