Stephen Collins reveals childhood trauma

Stephen Collins said that an older woman had exposed herself to him when he was between the ages of 10 and 15 years old.

ABC News Stephen Collins said that an older woman had exposed herself to him when he was between the ages of 10 and 15 years ancient.

Stephen Collins has claimed that he suffered a childhood trauma that had a lasting effect on him.

In a sit-down interview with Katie Couric that was posted on Yahoo and aired Friday on “20/20,” the “7th Heaven” actor said that a woman exposed herself to him several times when he was a boy.

“I did have someone in my life when I was between the ages of 10 and 15, an older woman, who repeatedly exposed herself to me,” the actor said, whose identity he did not reveal.

Collins made the revelation as part of his interview with Couric in which he confessed to and apologized for inappropriate sexual conduct with three girls, ages 10, 13 and 14, more than two decades ago.

ABC News Stephen Collins in a sit-down interview with Katie Couric that aired Friday on ‘20/20.’

The embattled star said that he wasn’t offering the report as a way to “defense” his actions, but clarify how it impacted his perception of appropriate behavior.

“That distorted my perception in such a way that some part of me felt – I never felt like I was molested. That word never crossed my mind as a 10 to 15-year-ancient boy,” Collins said.

“It was a very intense experience. I think somewhere in my brain I got the equation that, ‘Well, this isn’t so terrible. This person who I trust is doing it,’” he said.

THE WB/JERRY WOLFE/TLP (L-R): Jessica Biel, Catherine Hicks and Stephen Collins on ‘7th Heaven.’

Collins stressed that he was presenting this revelation not as a way of “blaming” the woman, but that he plotting the incidents “went into my own distorted thinking as a young man.”

He also apologized to fans of his standard family drama “7th Heaven,” while noting that the incidents of sexual misdemeanors occured prior to when he was cast on the show.

“I’m very sorry that anything that I did disappoints you that way,” he said when questioned what he’d say to the show’s fans.