Lara Logan Recounts Conversation With Husband After Sexual Assault

One year after suffering a brutal sexual assault in Egypt, Lara Logan disclosed new details about what it was like coming home after the harrowing attack.

Logan, CBS News' chief foreign affairs correspondent, suffered "a brutal and sustained sexual assault" in Cairo's Tahrir Square while covering the celebrations following Hosni Mubarak's resignation.

Logan later recounted the horrific experience, and revealed that she suffers from a latent form of post-traumatic stress disorder. She vowed to return to Afghanistan and other conflict zones, but decided not to report from Middle Eastern countries in the midst of protests.

T: The New York Times Style Magazine recently profiled Logan, who is scheduled to return to reporting from Afghanistan this summer. CBS News chief Jeff Fager praised her resilience, and said that her children have changed her "drive to be in the frontlines."

In the interview, Logan recounted the conversation she had with her husband six weeks after the attack. The assault had taken place one week after Egyptian officials took her into custody overnight, and her husband said that in each case, he did not know if he would ever see her again.

She recalled, "He said, 'That is twice in a week. I would rather be the person on the other end. I would rather be dead than be the one raising the children without you. Don’t do this to me again. Please. I am begging you not to do this to me again.'" Read the full profile in the New York Times' T magazine.

Related on HuffPost:

Women in Egypt march against sexual violence.

Comments

[rgram1673]

12:09 PM on 02/23/2012

Wow, the sympathy in these comments are unbelievable: the sexists "she shouldn't have been there" to the feminists "Unbelievable. His wife is brutally assaulted and he says "don't do this to ME again"? " Get in the real world people--she had a right to do her job, she shouldn't have been assaulted (and forcible penetration is rape regardless of the size of the object!) and if she has made a committment to another human being, he/she has a right to speak up when 'their' lives are affected. No the world isn't perfect. Bad things happen to good people. It is horrible what she went through and I pray she recovers. I also pray she doesn't read any of these comments--I think she suffered enough!

[Dan Slander]

05:07 AM on 02/23/2012

Compared to the gutsy Colvin looks like Lara got off a lot more lightly.

[Cameron Hodge]

12:00 PM on 02/23/2012

WOW are you ever an idiot...

[Dan Slander]

06:24 AM on 02/24/2012

Sometimes, but back to you, given the choice. I'm waiting.

[GSR]

03:54 PM on 02/22/2012

HP the proper usage is "Heart Rending" and Gut Wrenching"
Standards are everything.

[MarieNat]

09:27 AM on 02/23/2012

I love HuffPo, but am convinced they have high school sophomores doing some of their writing for them.

[wowme]

03:08 PM on 02/22/2012

She is a journalist who thinks we should filter the news.

[wowme]

03:07 PM on 02/22/2012

Milking much.

[KarateKid]

01:13 PM on 02/22/2012

I have two daughters and I've encouraged them to pursue what they want to do. I believe that for all women, so I don't think Lara Logan was doing anything but pursuing her dream.

But, unlike Marie Colvin, who had no children, Lara does. I think that changes the dynamics of what one wants to do. She and her husband made the conscious decision to have a family, and I believe family comes first, before one's career, especially if it involves long absences and danger. It's not fair to the spouse. Sometimes, you can't have it both ways.

[Quasi Libertarian]

06:15 PM on 02/22/2012

Very well done......I have felt this way ever since reading the story and didn't have the words to express my feelings as tasteful and effective as you just did.  You are quite right that a choice needs to be made.  

[pahammer]

11:01 AM on 02/23/2012

Well said

[jbriggs]

12:14 PM on 02/22/2012

Women should not be subjected to any type of sexual assault, but don't call what happened to her a rape. An actual rape is on another level of depravity entirely.

Also, she needs to stop talking about it. It helps no one and starts to feel like she's looking for the publicity. It's Erin Andrews-ish.

[Omeezee]

02:32 PM on 02/23/2012

I think it helps her deal with it. The more she talks about it, the less powerful (I hope for her sake) it is. I hope she does not go back though. She has nothing to prove to anyone, but maybe she has to be over it?

[1dogs2]

06:49 AM on 02/24/2012

Why shouldn't what happened to her be called rape? It falls within the FBI's definition of rape. Moreover, it was an appalling GANG rape that went on and on and on. Only a man would opine that what happened to her was of a lower level of depravity than "actual rape."

As for talking about it -- that is, according to many experts, the most effective way of dealing with the symptoms of PTS, which she must suffer from, given the horrendous and traumatic event she endured.

[sahsider]

11:38 AM on 02/22/2012

Revealing yourself as a misogynist pig again?

[smartin8600]

10:40 AM on 02/22/2012

Unbelievable. His wife is brutally assaulted and he says "don't do this to ME again"?

[Vyslichajici]

02:40 PM on 02/22/2012

as in, don't go volunteering to stand in the middle of a riot with a microphone and a video camera.

what about common sense do you not understand?
he was right. she should not have been there.

[Donatella]

05:11 PM on 02/23/2012

Is that the first husband she cheated on or the second husband? Or was it the journalist she was having an affair with while carrying on with the civilian contractor that would be her second husband? It's difficult to keep track.

[am10]

09:01 PM on 02/23/2012

Sadly, that whole bit really puts a bad taste in my mouth about her. Not to mention she's a home wrecker too.

[JC Young]

10:18 AM on 02/22/2012

First of all I don't know why anyone would state publicly a conversation they had with their spouse in private. Her priorities seem to be screwed up. If she has little children why is she going to those places putting her life at risk? It would be different if she didn't have kids. I think she was pretty damn selfish to put her job before her kids. Same goes for a man in that line of work and situation. The kids should come first.

[Gilbert Albright]

10:18 AM on 02/22/2012

Oh God! Here we go again. In the last 100 years there have been hundreds of MALE Journalists that have been jailed, beaten and murdered around the world, with little notice by the American media

Yet when one FEMALE journalist gets assaulted and the media goes nuts about Oh the Horror, Oh the Tragedy, Oh the Suffering and keeps regurgitating stories about it ONE YEAR after it happened.

According to the Media, a Female Journalist getting sexually assaulted is the Crime Of The Century.

Talk about Sexist News Reporting and Coverage!

[sahsider]

11:39 AM on 02/22/2012

Keep revealing yourself as a misogynist pig!

[wowme]

03:08 PM on 02/22/2012

you eat pigs

[fattrucker]

10:10 AM on 02/22/2012

she was in a crowd and she got roughed up a little, no clothing removed, no penetration, people came to her aid almost immediately, if that's the worst thing that ever happens to her she's very fortunate, it wasn't much worse than mardi gras

[smartin8600]

10:38 AM on 02/22/2012

Seriously? You should change your name to fat**cker....
"their hands raping me over and over and over again." People even tried to tear pieces of her scalp clean off her head"

[knosiswar]

02:50 PM on 02/22/2012

So there was digital (fingers) penetration or limited to groping over clothes?

[esblofeld]

12:08 PM on 02/23/2012

She was naked and bleeding profusely when the Egyptian soldiers managed to extract her from the crowd.

[fattrucker]

02:16 PM on 02/23/2012

B.S. you haven't done your homework.

[Eagleman]

09:18 AM on 02/22/2012

Moral of the story...

Women of the western world should stay away from Islamic countries if they want to avoid such savagery

[madame fate]

11:02 AM on 02/22/2012

And what would you advise the women who live there do?

[KarateKid]

01:15 PM on 02/22/2012

Just as many women are raped and attacked HERE.

[Ana Haget]

08:43 AM on 02/22/2012

Isn't it time to stay home Lara? What are you trying to prove by going back over seas? You have proven yourself as a reporter and have an excellent resume. Leave that work for the younger journalist trying to make a name for themselves.

[Lad123]

07:55 AM on 02/22/2012

Her husband is begging her not to do it again, she has young children. Why on earth would you put yourself in harms way AGAIN?

Don't give me that...oh its her passion crap..I find it selfish and makes me question her PSTD.

[abliss2379]

09:15 AM on 02/22/2012

That speech from her husband that Lara Logan's recounted is probably just a variation of the one countless wives/mothers have given THEIR war correspondent husbands.

[Lad123]

10:46 AM on 02/22/2012

Agreed..and I feel the same way in regards to the husbands as well. My reponsiblity is to my family first and foremost.