The view co-host Sunny Hostin, a former federal prosecutor, wants viewers who have watched the Chris Brown: a story of violence documentary on Sunday evening to learn that intimate partner violence has no boundaries.
“Domestic violence is an epidemic hiding in plain sight. It doesn't discriminate. From this perspective, wealth has little to do with many cases,” Hostin said The Hollywood journalist on Friday, before hosting the post-show discussion on domestic violence that aired after the Investigation Discovery doc on Chris Brown.
The doc explored Brown's years of alleged off-stage assaults, including intimate partner violence, assault charges, and sexual assault allegations that first surfaced in 2009, when the rapper pleaded guilty to charges of having physically attacked ex-girlfriend Rihanna.
“This was not an isolated incident. It only got attention because there's a big name attached to it. And our goal is to say: This is happening to so many people and you're not alone,” said Hostin, who is also a member of the board of directors of Safe Horizon, a national organization that works to reduce violence and abuse in relations.
No progress will be made to stem domestic violence, she added, if allegations and cases involving celebrity abusers are sensationalized and the stories of ordinary survivors are not heard. “This is something that doesn't just happen to famous people. It doesn't just happen to Rihanna. It doesn't just happen with an R. Kelly or a P Diddy or a Harvey Weinstein or a Jeffrey Epstein,” Hostin insisted.
The legal system can hold perpetrators of domestic and intimate partner abuse to account, but without the media attention afforded to high-profile cases involving the rich and famous. Given the scope of the problem, Hostin said she jumped at the opportunity to host the panel after the premiere of the documentary Brown to offer tools and resources to educate viewers on how to identify abuse and stop domestic violence. Hostin was joined by experts and advocates including NO MORE co-founder Jane Randel, CEO of The National Domestic Violence Hotline Katie Ray-Jones, Miss Kansas 2024, and healthy relationships advocate Alexis Smith, the cultural journalist Scaachi Koul and psychologist Dr. Carolyn West.
“It's very important to know if it's happening to a friend, to a family member, it could happen to you. Because part of this is isolation, psychological abuse, financial abuse, sometimes sexual abuse is involved, as well as mental abuse,” he added.
Hostin pointed out that even abusers without wealth have enablers. “I was told [survivor] stories of contacting family members and not believing them or trying to convince them to stay with their abusers. This actually happens,” he said.
When asked about the post-#MeToo entertainment industry — after the criminal conviction and incarceration of Harvey Weinstein, and now an incarcerated Sean “Diddy” Combs awaiting a criminal trial that includes conspiracy charges — where powerful celebrities can build a network of facilitators to carry out sexual abuse on them, Hostin insisted that bad people thrive when good people don't come forward.
“Often people see things and don't talk about it for whatever reason: maybe their job is at stake. Maybe they don't recognize the signs. The enabling part is extremely concerning,” she said, adding that the document and its post-premiere discussion are crucial to offering tools for survivors of domestic violence to come forward, share their stories and be an example to others.
“[Domestic violence] it thrives in silence and people unfortunately enable this behavior by not pointing it out or talking about it,” he warned.
When speaking with THR Earlier in the week, ID President Jason Sarlanis said the Brown document, which will also help launch the ID's third annual No Excuse for Abuse campaign, aims to “normalize survival.”
The doc had a lengthy interview with Jane Doe, an accuser who in December 2020 was invited to a party hosted by fellow rapper Diddy on Star Island, where she claimed Brown raped her in a bedroom on a yacht . The documentary follows the recent arrest and criminal charges brought against Diddy, who will also become the subject of an upcoming Identity docuseries scheduled for release in 2025.
When ID's producers contacted Brown and his representatives, an attorney for the singer said the allegations in the program were “malicious and false.”
“This [Chris Brown] the documentary serves as a cautionary tale for our audiences insofar as it exemplifies the patterns and cycles of abuse that occur between men and women that perpetuate domestic violence. Being able to shine a light on this is really valuable to our viewers,” Sarlanis said THR.