EXCLUSIVE: Charlize Theron Faces Bizarre Trolling Over Her Love of Boozing After Revealing Trauma of Alcoholic Dad Shot Dead By Her Mom
Charlize Theron's father, Charles, was killed by her mother.
April 20 2026, Published 2:57 p.m. ET
Charlize Theron is facing a wave of oddball online trolling over her openness about enjoying alcohol, RadarOnline.com can reveal, after she spoke candidly about the trauma of growing up with an abusive, alcoholic father who was later shot dead by her mother in self-defense.
The 50-year-old Oscar-winning actress has long discussed her complex relationship with alcohol, shaped by a childhood in South Africa marked by fear, instability, and her father Charles' alcoholism.
Charlize Theron: 'Drunk People Scared Me'
Theron's alcoholic father was shot and killed by her mother in 1991.
Theron was just 15 in 1991 when her mother, Gerda Jacoba Aletta Martiz, now in her 70s, fatally shot her father during a violent confrontation that was later ruled self-defense.
In a recent, searingly honest interview with the NY Times, Theron has reflected on those experiences – but her separate admission she drinks socially has triggered brutal criticism and confusion online. Theron used her recent chat to address her past with striking honesty, recalling the environment she grew up in.
She said, "I have memories from when I was really young, seeing really drunk people, and it scared me. Like, people crawling on the floor, drunk. That became so consistent that it was every Friday, Saturday, maybe even every Wednesday."
Sources close to the actress said the backlash she has received is deeply frustrating, given the nuance of her experience.
One insider said, "There is a real misunderstanding of what she has shared. Charlize is not glorifying alcohol – she is being honest about living with trauma while still having a healthy, controlled relationship with it. The trolling feels cruel because it ignores everything she went through as a child.
"People are cruelly asking why she drinks when her father inflicted such cruelty on her family because of booze. It is some of the most bizarre trolling ever."
'It Really Caused A Lot of Verbal Abuse'
The actress revealed her father was 'abusive.'
Theron has said: "I'm not an alcoholic and I don't swear that much. Do I? Just because I fall, it doesn't mean I'm drunk." She has also joked about using what she called "acting juice" during rehearsals for Young Adult, and more recently expressed interest in taking part in a "day drinking" segment with Seth Meyers.
Friends say the criticism has resurfaced painful memories of her upbringing, which she has described as dominated by fear and unpredictability.
She said about her father's boozing: "My dad had built this big bar inside the house. He had moments where he would go missing, we wouldn't know where he was, and he would usually return in a state that was pretty severe. It would get messy and loud, and my mom's not a wallflower either. She wasn't just sitting and taking it. She made it known that she wasn't happy about his lifestyle. So, it really caused a lot of verbal abuse."
Another source said, "What people are missing is that Charlize has spent her life processing trauma over her father. Her relationship with alcohol is not reckless – it is informed, intentional, and shaped by everything she witnessed growing up."
Charlize Theron Recalls Terrifying Incident With Father
Theron's mother, Gerda Martiz, did not face charges following the shooting.
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Theron has also spoken about the emotional toll of her parents' relationship, particularly the silence that followed conflict.
She said: "Personally, for me, the worst thing was (when my mother and father) would ice each other. There would be a big fight, and then they wouldn't talk for three weeks. I didn't have siblings, and that house just went silent."
Recalling the night her father died, Theron described the fear she felt as events escalated.
The movie star recalled, "I had to pee really badly. So I ran into the house to get to the toilet, and he took that as me being rude, because I didn't stop and say hello to everybody. Big thing in South Africa, the kind of respect that you have to have for elders. And he was in a state where he just spiralled.
"Like: 'Why didn't you stop? Who do you think you are?' I knew he was mad at me. So I said to (my mother), 'When he eventually decides to come home, please tell him I'm asleep.' I went into my room, turned my lights off, and I was scared."
Theron's father had begun shooting at the family before her mother responded with shots of her own.
She added: "My window faced the driveway, and I could tell the level of anger, frustration, or unhappiness by the way he drove in." Theron also said she "just knew something bad was going to happen."
Describing her father forcing entry and firing shots, the actress added: "The two of us were holding the door with our bodies because there wasn't a lock on it. He just stepped back and started shooting through the door."
But she added: "Not one bullet hit us." Theron said her mother retrieved a firearm and responded.
She said: "The messaging was very clear: 'I'm going to kill you tonight. You think I can't come into this door? Watch me. I'm going to go to the safe. I'm going to get the shotgun.'"
She also recalled her father and uncle, who had allegedly accompanied Charles, were both shot. Theron added, "He walked to the safe, and my mom pulled the door open while the brother was still standing there. The brother ran down the hallway, and she shot one bullet down the hallway that ricocheted seven times and shot him in the hand.
"It's stuff you can't explain. And then she followed my father, who was by then opening the safe to get more weapons out, and she shot him."
The actress said after the incident, her mother continued with daily life.
"The next morning she sent me to school. She was just like, 'We're going to move on," the star recalled. "Not necessarily the healthiest thing, but it worked for us."
Her mother faced no charges as the shooting was ruled as self-defense.
