The Shocking Reason I Ended Up On TV

As a child, Sunny Hostin witnessed a violent crime against her uncle. Here, the talk-show cohost shares how the experience steered her to practice law and use her platform to spark social change.

- Colleen McKeegan

I grew up in the South Bronx in the 1970s. My dad worked in IT, and my mom was a teacher. They were a biracial couple (my dad is African American, and my mom is Puerto Rican), and all they wanted for me was opportunity. They were so loving and tried to shield me from my surroundings, but I saw plenty of violent and belligerent people in my neighborhood. Our extended family was close by, though, so we stayed.

My paternal uncle lived near us. He was younger than my dad and the rambunctious one, always loud and making jokes. One night when I was seven, we were at a neighbor’s party. There was music and dancing, though I was watching on the periphery with a book in hand. My uncle’s girlfriend was there. She was pretty—and married, it turned out. Her husband showed up at the party and began shouting. He started chasing my uncle around the apartment, stabbed him, and ran away.

As I watched, I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience. Everything was in slow motion. That feeling is cemented in my brain forever. I remember the chaos of it all: my grandmother and my father screaming, the color of the blood against the small black-and-white tiles of the bathroom he was taken to, everyone calling 911, his open stomach and the yellow shade of his insides. At the hospital, I dove into my book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Its protagonists walk into an armoire and end up in a fantasy world where they are royalty—and they are protected by a lion who is really a deity. I think that’s why I loved fantasy books so much. They let me escape.