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For the second time in a week, Jacob Roloff has opened up about a personal tragedy.
Toward the end December — just over a year after going public with sexual assault allegations against a former Little People, Big World producer — the 24-year old basically patted himself on the back.
Roloff explained all the reasons why he was glad he came forward in late 2020.
“I felt so free of a useless burden, felt so much closer to my ever-supportive wife, so much more open and confident to myself,” Jacob wrote on Instagram of what it was like for him after claiming he had been abused by a man named Chris Cardamone.
Added Jacob:
“On some level it allowed me to become a dad, to finally open that door.
“I’m so, so happy that I did and I love [newborn son] Mateo more than I could have guessed or hoped or dreamed.”
Because Roloff himself brought this sensitive topic back up recently, at least one follower felt comfortable asking him about it a couple days ago.
“Why didn’t you press charges against your abuser?” the fan asked, referencing Cardamone… who worked on the TLC reality series from 2007 to 2010.
Roloff was between the ages of 10 and 13 years old during that time and said in his initial admission that he hopes Cardamone is “never allowed around children again.”
But why didn’t Jacob take things further?
“It does help explain your absence,” the follower continued in his/her message.
“I’ve often wondered what really happened … and especially since you were a child, how much you got to say. I am just so sorry you had to experience that, but I’m glad you’re on the other side of it.
“You named names and you’re holding them accountable.
“I hope to God that man has been arrested or at least had to pay for what he did.”
Jacob, who left Little People, Big World in 2016, then responded in detail.
“Appreciate the sentiment,” he wrote to the fan.
“Unfortunately, and I think this is important for others to know, too, it is extremely difficult to pursue any legal action because of a system built to make it that way.
“He won’t receive any repercussions except for perhaps socially from my post.”
Added Jacob, who welcomed his firstborn a month ago:
“A cruel world and a joke of legal system!
“Just emphasizes that we should, in general, believe victims.
“If they cannot find closure through legal action (the most common outcome), they should at least be able to find support and validation in the people around them!”
In December 2020, Roloff stunned observers when he accused Cardamone of molesting him.
This is what he wrote back then:
It is often much easier to think about things than it is to talk about them, and so this disclosure has been delayed, but through that delay I have found the fortitude and words.
As a child, after what I realize now was a long grooming process, I was molested by an executive field producer for Little People, Big World, Chris Cardamone.
I do not expect to provide details of this encounter at any point publicly. I do hope he is never allowed around children again.
I choose to disclose it now as it remains a traumatic memory that needs to be exorcised of any further power over my development.
By revealing this, I may be more fully understood and my perspective on issues such as child sexual abuse, child exploitation and the collateral costs of reality television may be received more clearly.
Although, I would have to add that this experience has not solely defined my point of view on any of these issues, nor has it defined my worldview in general.
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