Gloria Estefan reveals she was molested at nine

US musician Gloria Estefan has revealed that, at the age of nine, she was sexually abused by someone her mother trusted.

The Cuban-American superstar spoke for the first time publicly about the abuse and its effects on her during an episode of the Facebook Watch show “Red Table Talk: The Estefans” that aired Thursday.

She described how her mother had put him into the music school of a relative.

“She felt lucky that he was focusing this kind of attention on me,” the singer said.

Estefan, who was born in Cuba and moved to Miami with her family when she was a toddler, revealed the abuse at the top of the show.

The Associated Press does not typically identify victims of sexual abuse unless they agree to be named or share their stories publicly.

Sitting at the round red table with her co-hosts - daughter Emily Estefan and niece Lili Estefan - Estefan opened by saying that “93% of abused children know and trust their abusers, and I know this, because I was one of them.”

“You’ve waited for this moment a long time,” her niece told her.

“I have,” Estefan replied.

The three held hands with teary eyes.

She did not name her abuser but described how she tried to stop him.

She said the abuse started little by little before moving fast, and that she knew that she was in a dangerous situation after confronting him.

“I told him, ‘This cannot happen, you cannot do this.’ He goes: ‘Your father’s in Vietnam, your mother’s alone and I will kill her if you tell her,’” Estefan said.

Estefan said she started making up excuses to avoid going to music lessons. Her daughter Emily asked if her grandmother had any inkling something was going on. People didn’t talk about those things back then, Estefan replied.

She tried to reach her dad, with whom she exchanged voice tapes while he was posted in Vietnam.

She said, so one night she ran to her mother’s bedroom at 3 a.m. and told her what was going on.

Her mother called the police, but the officers advised her not to press charges because the trauma of testifying would be too harmful.

Estefan said she didn’t tell the producers she was going to reveal her story on Thursday’s episode.

No one knew about the abuse except for her family, said the singer, who has been married to music producer Emilio Estefan for over four decades.

The Associated Press asked the show's publicist if Estefan could answer some questions, including if the man was still alive. The publicist told the AP that she would not make further comments.

IMAGE: AP