When the details of the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal broke a few years ago, the public was left stunned by the graphic accounts told by his victims. During the 2012 trial, Victim 1 testified that Sandusky forced him to perform oral sex. Victim 9 said he was sodomized. Others recounted similar stories of molestation.
Sandusky, Penn State's former assistant football coach, was found guilty on 45 counts of child sexual abuse and sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison. Shortly after the trial, dozens more victims came forward with sexual abuse allegations dating back as much as 30 years ago, leaving the horrified public wondering how Sandusky's crimes could go unnoticed for so long.
In the midst of it all was Sandusky's adopted son Matthew, who says that he, too, quietly endured years of sexual abuse at the hands of his father. Breaking his three-year silence on the matter, Matthew sits down with Oprah this Thursday for an interview detailing his own experience.
Prior to living with the Sanduskys full-time at the age of 16, Matthew had attended Sandusky's charity summer camp for underprivileged children. He then began spending more time with the Sanduskys, often staying overnight in their home.
"The overnight visits were... They were good," Matthew says in the above video from his interview. "I mean, except for that one part: bedtime."
At bedtime, Matthew says Sandusky followed a "ritual" of sexually abusing him. The rest of his time with the family seemed, on the surface, completely innocent and ordinary.
"Any other time that we were in the home... it was fine. You'd look at that family and you would say, 'Wow. I wish that I had brothers and sisters that cared about me. I wish that I had a mother who cooked dinner every night for the whole family. I wish that I had all of these things,'" Matthew recalls. "But then at bedtime, his ritual began."
In Thursday's interview, Matthew also shares his account of the grooming, methodical control and manipulation he faced as a child. Though it will spark outrage and disgust, Oprah insists it's an interview every parent must watch.
Oprah's interview with Matthew Sandusky airs on "Oprah Prime" on Thursday, July 17, at 9 p.m. ET on OWN.
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