Marcus Mumford admits he was sexually abused as a child

Marcus Mumford revealed that he was a victim of sexual abuse as a child – an experience that influenced the songs on his upcoming solo album Self-proclaimed — in a new interview.

Speak with GQMumford said that his new single (and Self-proclaimeds opening song) “Cannibal” was written as Mumford began to come to terms with what had happened to him at the age of six.

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“Like many other people – and I’m learning more and more about it the further we go and the more I show it to people – I was sexually abused as a child,” Mumford said GQ“Not from family and not in church, as some might assume. But I didn’t tell anyone about it for 30 years.”

Mumford continued: “What happened when I was six was the first of a series of really unusual, unhealthy sexual experiences at a very early age. And for some reason, and I can’t really understand why, I didn’t become a perpetrator of sexual abuse – even though I did my share of stupid behavior. A series of really unhealthy things when I was under 12, which set my brain up to deal with things in an unbalanced way later in life. And so over the last three years I’ve just tried to look at that and create some balance.”

The singer also told GQ that his own mother only found out about the abuse when she heard “Cannibal” and its lyrics; the subsequent conversation between Mumford and his mother about what happened is recorded in Self-proclaimed‘s second song, “Grace”.

Elsewhere in the interview, Mumford speaks at length about the departure of Mumford & Sons banjo player Winston Marshall, who left the band in June after months of uproar over his praise of an alt-right social media personality’s book. Years earlier, the band had found themselves in a similar situation when controversial self-help author Jordan Peterson shared a photo of himself in the studio with the band.

“Staying in the band and censoring myself will weigh on my conscience and undermine my integrity. By leaving, I hope to be able to speak freely without them feeling the consequences,” Marshall wrote in June about his departure from the band.

Mumford admitted that he “really begged Marshall not to leave Mumford & Sons,” but “(Marshall) felt that his priorities weren’t aligned with the way he wanted to talk about things and live his life. He wanted to do something different. And that’s why I support him doing something different. Even though we disagree on a lot of things. A lot. And now even more so.”

“And that’s why I don’t like Jordan Peterson. One of the reasons,” said Mumford GQwhich goes back to the viral photo. “It’s the way you interact with the world. I think grace is important when you’re talking to people. I think if you come across as an asshole and you’re an angry man, especially in this time, an angry, older, white man — it just bores me, man. We need grace.”

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