Home & Away icon reveals harrowing ordeal where he was ‘drugged and raped' by two men

News.com.au

2 days ago

A former Home & Away star has revealed his harrowing ordeal of being 'drugged and raped' by two men.
Mat Stevenson, 56, who is best known for playing hearthrob Adam Cameron on the iconic soap opera from 1989 to 1994, has opened up about his shocking ordeal in a new tell-all interview.
Sitting down with The Sydney Morning Herald, he shared that shortly before he scored his role on Home & Away he became interested in potentially starting a career as a real estate agent.
He attended a business presentation about becoming a real estate agent that tragically ended in him being sexually assaulted.
The actor said that he was offered a drink by one of the men, and then quickly he became increasingly dizzy.
'This other bloke (then) came out of nowhere. I was paralysed, I was a strong young kid, I was a good sportsman, but I was paralysed,' he said.
Stevenson said that the two men raped him while he was 'blacked out'.
The following day Stevenson woke up in the same room alone. Both men had vanished.
'I was in a fair bit of pain, and I was late for work. I told my dad, I said, 'I think I've just been raped', and he ignored it,' said the actor.
Tragically, Stevenson and his father never spoke of the horrific incident again.
Then, just a day later, Stevenson got a phonecall to say that he had scored a role on Neighbours, which would be the beginning of a career spanning across multiple Australian soaps.
'I just so badly wanted to be there that I suppressed that assault,' he said.
'I was just – bang – straight down into denial.'
He was eventually poached by Home & Away where he became a household name for his role as Adam Cameron.
But his entire experience on the show was tainted by his traumatic past, Stevenson said.
'Inside, I just felt like my soul was being ripped out … I wanted to scream,' he said.
'I didn't know how to unpack the pain, so I'd mask it. I built a character around me, which was the character that people saw. He looks laid-back, he looks laconic, he looks like he doesn't care about much. I had to hide those demons that were inside.
'It was really painful, and I found that it would spike whenever I had absolute moments of success or joy.'
His life further spiralled when his father suddenly passed away from a heart attack in the 90s.
'I was full of self-loathing,' he said.
'It was like I was allergic to myself. My dad's death really ramped up my high-risk behaviour: alcohol and gambling. I shut down. I put up this facade that I didn't give a s**t. I just couldn't handle life any more. I didn't have the skills to navigate my way through it.'
After leaving Home & Away in 1994, the actor lost everything and became homeless within a year of his departure.
'I was just in free fall, suffering in silence, spending what little money I had left and finding solace in the bottom of a schooner glass.
'I walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge; it was pissing down, and I remember standing there and thinking, 'Righto, if you want to do it, now's the time. But if you don't do it now, it's time to move out of pity town. It's time to move on.' '