Ashley Judd Recalls Meeting With Man Who Raped Her to Have a ‘Restorative Justice Conversation’: ‘There Are Many Ways of Healing From Grief’

usmagazine.com:

Ashley Judd candidly addressed her decision to meet with the man who raped her for a “restorative-justice conversation” — after she worked through the trauma.During an appearance on the “Healing with David Kessler” podcast, which posted a new episode on Tuesday, July 26, Judd, 54, recalled trying to find her rapist after the 1999 incident. “To make a long story short, we ended up in rocking chairs sitting by a creek together,” she explained, adding that the man “surfaced very easily” amid her search. “And I said, ‘I’m very interested in hearing the story you’ve carried all these years.’ And we had a restorative-justice conversation about that.”The actress noted that she “didn’t need” the man to “make amends” in order for her to move forward. “Because I had the opportunity to do my trauma work, to do my grief work, to do my healing work, to have all these shifts in my own consciousness and to bond in these female coalition spaces with other survivors,” she shared, referring to her personal process as “independent from that previous asymmetry of power.”Judd also referred to the 1999 incident as “crazy-making” because she “knew better,” adding, “I was very clear, my boundaries were intact.

I was already an empowered, adult feminist woman.”She continued: “And that this could happen under these circumstances was unconscionable, unforeseen, and yet I have had a restorative-justice process with this person out of how replete my soul is today.”For the Double Jeopardy star, her approach to dealing with her grief was strictly her own. “I wanted to share that story because there are many ways of healing from grief, and it’s important to remind listeners that I didn’t need anything from him and it was just gravy that he made his