"Harry Potter" star Jessie Cave revealed a horrifying event that took place while she was at the tender age of 14. Instead of letting it define her, however, she was able to use it to her advantage.

It does not erase the trauma, but it is certainly possible, she said.

According to Cave, who played Ron Weasley's love interest Lavender Brown in the successful film series, she was raped by her own tennis coach when she was just a teen.

In the podcast "We Can't Talk About That Right Now" that she shared with her sister, she bravely recounted what had happened.

The topic was about who had the worse adolescent years, and she just popped out the terrible information out of the blue. "I think rape at 14 is pretty bad. By your tennis coach, who you trusted, a position of power," she said.

She was not saying it to win a nonsensical competition on who had a worse life growing up, though. Cave also did not want to portray herself as a mere victim. She said that she was very fit, and yet it was completely possible to be overpowered by a man. Good thing though, Jessie did not let the incident just go and had the criminal coach jailed ever since.

"I was fit and I was very able with a tennis ball. But I was still taken advantage of, and he was sent to jail," Cave said.

Moving On and Staying Strong

The actress, now 33, said that she was able to put the tragedy behind her as time passed. She has not forgotten it, since she is still able to share it. However, probably unique to her, Cave added that she feels lucky.

Not lucky because she was raped, but lucky enough that she was raped but not destroyed. Her life still turned out quite well after, which is not something all rape victims experience.

Cave, nevertheless, believes that being able to recover from such trauma is not being discussed as much. Some people may even make something good out of the negative event in their lives.

"There are some people that are okay after, there are some people that do use it and find a way of living with it and definitely are not defined by it," Jessie added.

It might be controversial, but she is not wrong if her life would serve as the prime example. She was a highly ranked swimmer and tennis player for quite some time. Nonetheless, an injury forced her to retire early.

Still, Jessie soon snagged the role of Lavender Brown through an open casting call in 2007. She was able to best beyond 7000 girls for the "Harry Potter" role.

Rape Is Not the Key Takeaway

The actress does not want people to focus only on her rape as the key takeaway from her podcast. When news of her rape broke out, she took to her social media to clarify why she shared the incident in the first place.

"As is natural when having a casual chat with a sibling, you can be talking about how much cake you ate one second and the next to be talking about more serious things like teenage rape. Mine, in particular. And some people chose to focus in on this....." Cave wrote.

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 I released my first podcast with my sister yesterday. We talk about silly things like our outfit choices and differences in style, cake and weight and the acting industry, our love languages, photo collages and the dangers of Soy. As is natural when having a casual chat with a sibling, you can be talking about how much cake you ate one second and the next be talking about more serious things like teenage rape. Mine, in particular. And some people chose to focus in on this..... The thing I need to say is.... I am not a victim and was not defined by what happened as a girl. I am okay and I can talk about it, even laugh about it, carry it with me and use it. I have done so extensively and publically in past writing, my show Sunrise for example, even talked about it on other people's podcasts about mental health and love. I bring it up casually (without trigger warnings because I forget and don't really understand them) because it's just a part of me and has been for over half of my life. But our podcast was not about that! By picking up this as the main theme / it makes me scared to be as open and honest in the future, which is unhelpful for people who might benefit from hearing stories about post-traumatic growth. This weekend I will be writing a piece for my patreon page about this. Right now, on Instagram, while I'm happy and oblivious, all I wanted to say is.... be careful what you read and watch your back. Love xxx A post shared by JeSsIe CaVE (@jessiecave) on Aug 28, 2020 at 4:30am PDT

Jessie Cave is now happy with her partner Alfie Brown, a comedian. They already have two children and are also expecting a third one.

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