Mo'Nique's parents addressed the family's darkest hour on TV show Oprah on Monday (19Apr10), revealing they wished their daughter had come to them with her plans to go public about her child molestation hell.
The Oscar winner exposed her brother Gerald as a teenage sexual predator last year (09) when she told the media how she tapped into the mind of cruel Mary Jones for her role in Precious, and the big reveal opened up a 30-year-old nightmare for her folks Alice and Steven Imes.
Appearing with their disgraced son, who confessed to inappropriate behaviour with his sister when he was 13 and she was eight, the Imeses told Oprah they thought the matter had been addressed when they temporarily asked Gerald to leave the family home after Mo'Nique told them her older brother had "tried to lay on top of me" when she was 15.
Alice Imes said, "I felt hurt for both of my kids... I let her (Mo'Nique) know that I believed her. I said, 'Mo'Nique, I understand you don't wanna go back (to) when it (sexual assault) was.
Do you feel like, to clear yourself, you need to go and we can talk to someone other than myself, that you can cleanse and let this out.' She said, 'No mom, I'm fine; I just want to let you know that this happened.'"
Imes now regrets not revisiting the sexual assault with her daughter after banished Gerald returned to the family home - but she was hurt when Mo'Nique decided to go public with the family's secret on national TV.
She added, "We have always been a close family... I wasn't upset, but my thought was, 'As a family such as we were, this is something I felt that should have been discussed first privately within the family. Now, if you wanna tell the world, but give us a chance (sic).
"My question is, 'You are older now, we are older now, maybe as a family we can better understand what help was really needed.'
"I only hope, with doing this, this can cleanse her hurt."
Imes also revealed she and her daughter hadn't spoken for more than two years, and that Mo'Nique had "separated herself" from the family over another matter.
Tagged in Mo'nique