For broadcaster and campaigner Charlie Webster, Sundays were once days of pure dread. Left alone with her violently abusive stepfather while her mother worked, the then 10-year-old would retreat into terrified silence in her Sheffield bedroom, hoarding snacks bought with her paper round money.
A Childhood Lived in Fear and Hypervigilance
Charlie, now 43, learned to navigate her own home with the stealth of a ghost. She avoided creaking floorboards, held her breath, and became an expert in making herself invisible. The fear was so all-consuming that even basic bodily functions became a source of terror.
"I tried to make myself as small and as silent as possible," she recalls. "To the point where I struggled to go to the toilet because of the noise of flushing or shutting the door. I would wet myself, sometimes, rather than going out of my bedroom."
From the age of seven, when her stepfather entered her life, Charlie existed in a state of constant hypervigilance. The violence was brutal and unpredictable, directed at her and her mother, Joy, and later at her three younger brothers.
"Every day there was a fear that, would we still be alive?" she says. "Every morning I would wake and think – Is my mum dead – because I’d hear stuff in the night." The abuse was not only physical, involving punches, kicks and Chinese burns, but also psychological and controlling. He rationed food, counted yoghurts, and restricted hot water use.
The Long Shadow of Trauma and a Double Betrayal
Running became Charlie's escape during her teens, with training and clubs offering a temporary sanctuary. Yet, in a cruel twist, she was not safe outside the home either. At 15, she was sexually abused by her running coach, a betrayal she later explored in a BBC documentary.
Her final escape from the family home came at 17, when she returned from school to find a 'Sold' sign outside. Her mother and stepfather were moving to Leeds, and she was told she could not join them. Heartbroken and separated from her beloved younger brothers, she moved in with her grandparents.
Charlie built a highly successful career as a broadcaster for the BBC and Sky, covering global sporting events. Yet, the trauma followed her. She describes a painful contradiction: a confident professional on screen, who would revert to a terrified child when visiting the family home for Christmas, sitting in a corner to wrap presents only to be kicked.
"I had created a career and independence for myself. Yet all those feelings of low self-worth remained," she explains. The trauma manifested in risky behaviour, over-work, and hypervigilance that persisted into adulthood, including nightmares and always needing to sleep near an exit.
Breaking the Cycle: Advocacy and a Path to Healing
The cycle finally began to break when her mother, Joy, left the abusive marriage in 2018. Both women have since worked intensively on their trauma, rebuilding a strong relationship. Charlie now considers herself happy, healthy and healed. She is in a new relationship, has won awards for her hit podcasts, and is developing TV projects in the US.
Driven by her own experience, Charlie has become a powerful advocate, advising the government as part of the Ministry of Justice Victims’ Panel and campaigning for the Domestic Abuse Bill. Her central mission is to ensure children are seen as primary victims, not just bystanders, in cases of domestic abuse.
"As a society, we can’t treat the children as secondary in domestic abuse – after the parent," she states emphatically. "Children need to be at the forefront of policy, legislation and resourcing."
She highlights the shocking statistic from Women’s Aid that an estimated 1 in 7 children in the UK will live with domestic abuse, a figure that may be even higher. Ellie Daniel, Head of Policy and Survivor Services at the charity, emphasises the urgent need for support for these often-forgotten victims.
Charlie tells her story not for sympathy, but as a call to action. "I want people to understand that without proper support and mental health care, these children can grow up to be adults who become the next victim or perpetrator in the cycle of abuse," she says. Her work is a testament to the possibility of healing and her determination to use her voice to protect others.
