Kidnap survivor Elizabeth Smart has opened up about her sex life with her husband after the horrific ordeal she suffered at the hands of a rapist when she was 14.
The 33-year-old woman has described in her 2013 book “My Story” how she was snatched from her bedroom in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2002 and forced to the ground at knifepoint before being held for nine grueling months.
Smart said she was treated as a sex object by Brian David Mitchell and as a slave by his wife, Wanda Barzee, who denied her food and water for days at a time.
Mitchell was sentenced in 2011 and is serving two life terms. Barzee was released from prison in 2018 despite pleas from Smart that she be kept behind bars.
Smart, who has since gotten married and become a mother of three children, has now sought on Instagram to answer what she described is one of the most asked questions: “How are you able to have sex after experiencing so much rape and sexual trauma?”
She described the “big differences” between sex and rape that allow her to be intimate with her hubby, Matthew Gilmour.
“Sex is entered into by choice (also known as ‘enthusiastic consent’) and is based off a relationship built off of trust and mutual love,” Smart wrote.
“Sex is more than just the physical act. It’s about love, connection, and pleasure,” she added.
Meanwhile, “rape is forced, coerced, manipulative, and often violent,” she added. “Rape not only is often physically painful but is emotionally and spiritually painful and devastating.”
