Marcus Mumford is bravely opening up about his traumatic childhood.
While discussing his upcoming solo album, Self-Titled, and its lead single “Cannibal” in an interview with GQ, the 35-year-old Mumford & Sons singer made a devastating revelation about his childhood, revealing that he was sexually abused at age six.
He shared:
“Like lots of people—and I’m learning more and more about this as we go and as I play it to people—I was sexually abused as a child.
Not by family and not in the church, which might be some people’s assumption. But I hadn’t told anyone about it for 30 years.”
He said that he used “Cannibal” to tell his mother about the abuse:
“She came back: ‘Can I ask what that song’s about?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s about the abuse thing.’ She was like, ‘What are you talking about?’
So once we get through the trauma of that moment for her, as a mother, hearing that and her wanting to protect and help and all that stuff, it’s objectively f–king hilarious to tell your mom about your abuse in a f–king song, of all things.”
Marcus went on to say that he took inspiration for the album’s second track, “Grace,” from that conversation with his mom, adding:
“That thing that happened when I was six, that was the first of a string of really unusual, unhealthy sexual experiences at a really early age. And for some reason, and I can’t really understand why, I didn’t become a perpetrator of sexual abuse—although I’ve done my fair share of c–tish behavior.
String of really unhealthy s–t when I was under the age of 12, which set my brain up in a way to deal with stuff later on in life in an imbalanced way. And so the last three years has just been trying to look at that and correct some balance.”
