Kara Dioguardi on American Idol, Surviving Sexual Abuse – Today Show

By On 04/26/2011 · 52 Comments · In American Idol, Kara DioGuardi

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Ex American Idol judge, Kara Dioguardi sat down with Matt Lauer at the Today show this morning to discuss her time at Idol, surviving sexual abuse and date rape and more.

“As far as I’m concerned,” says Kara in her new book, Hell of a High Note, “American Idol Season 8 might as well have been called ‘Survivor’. Every moment was mentally, physically and emotionally challenging. Every old fear or insecurity about the way I looked, what I said and who I was leaped to the forefront of my mind before each show…it was torture.”

When Kara was molested at 11 years old, she told her mother, who did nothing about it. Before her mom’s death in the late 90′s from Ovarian cancer, Kara was able to reconcile the issue with her.

See the interview after the jump.

The Daily Beast review is HERE: 1

On watching Adam Lambert and Kris Allen sing “No Boundaries” on the S8 final: “Watching them sing that live was like watching a plane fall from the sky.”

Kara says she was hired to be the “polarizing” 4th judge and was unaware that she’d been hired in part, she writes, “to keep Paula in check, since her contract was up in a year.”

Also, check out this interview from AOL.com HERE.

Were you fired or did you quit?
I called them after I saw reports about the show and they said now that Ellen is leaving it’s put everything up in the air because now we need to replace two people so we don’t know what’s going on. So I asked if I was fired and they said “no,” so I said well last week we were talking about auditions, am I definitely doing the show? And they said, “We can’t say that for sure but you’re definitely not fired.” I thought I’m not going to hang around and wait to see what happens, so I sent them a letter asking them to release me from their contract which they would not do until they sorted it all out. I think the reality is that the panel was not set up until the very end.

You never had a problem with Paula but you had problems with Simon.
I never had any issues with Paula. It was more they brought me on and didn’t tell her. With Simon I felt like he wasn’t letting me … and he was the key to the panel. For whatever reason, I just felt like the newbie. But then we got to a place where we respected each other and I learned the most from him.

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  • loosegoose

    Just read the whole thread after posting very early yesterday. I’m sorry my comments implied a criticism of a victim speaking out. I wasn’t clear enough. What bothers me is that she did much the same thing to CJ that was done to her when she was trying to break into the business. All that leering, the sexual hints…And all Casey could do, since this was his big chance, was to grit his teeth and play along. She doesn’t see the contradiction between her own story and then inflicting that treatment on someone else? That’s what I meant by taking responsibility for her behavior–not that that she was responsible for her date rape–absolutely not!–but that now, as a successful pro, she subjected another young hopeful to sexual teases and taunts in a situation where he really couldn’t say no unless he was willing to give up his big chance.

  • https://twitter.com/pmhowden undercooked

    What bothers me is that she did much the same thing to CJ that was done to her when she was trying to break into the business. All that leering, the sexual hints…And all Casey could do, since this was his big chance, was to grit his teeth and play along. She doesn’t see the contradiction between her own story and then inflicting that treatment on someone else?

    It. is. not. the. same. thing. Also did Casey get four votes from the judges to go to Hollywood? I’m sure Randy, Ellen and Simon would have voted him through if he hadn’t taken is shirt off. Casey is a grown man. He could have made some joke about it and not taken his shirt off.

    Sometimes it takes victims a long time to be able to discuss their traumas. I also think AI was traumatic for her and perhaps that triggered her to deal with the other traumas buried inside. Part of her problem on AI was her insecurity. I’m sure a lot of that came from her childhood. The stress of AI may have been the catalyst she needed to finally address these problems. Perhaps she is in therapy now?

    I wish her the best.

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