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'I felt very trapped': Former child bride Dawn Tyree reveals she was groomed and impregnated at age 13

Dawn Tyree has made the decision to use her experience to speak out against child abuse and promote the prohibition of child marriage

WARNING: The article contains recollections of sexual abuse which can be triggering to some readers If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.

CALIFORNIA: A former child bride has opened up about her ordeal of being groomed, raped, and becoming pregnant at the age of 13. Dawn Tyree, from California, was compelled by her father and stepmother to marry a man who was 19 years her senior after he first got her pregnant.

She had two babies and learned she was expecting a third child by the time she was 16 years old, but she determined that it was time to set herself free and left the marriage. The now-51-year-old is running a campaign to stop child abuse and is urging legislators to eliminate all legal loopholes that allow for underage marriage. 

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Who is Dawn Tyree?

Tyree's shocking story started when she was just 11 years old and a man 19 years her senior started grooming her while he was her nanny. She claims that he gave the young girl adult duties, like driving a car, in order to make her feel older. She was 13 when the 32-year-old impregnated her. After graduating from the sixth grade in 1985, Tyree's father immediately gave his approval for the marriage. 

'Marriage covers up rape, sex abuse and child endangerment'

"The solution was marriage," Tyree revealed to TODAY.com. "Marriage covers up the rape, the sex abuse and the child endangerment." "The marriage saved him from a prison sentence," she further said, "and essentially put me in a prison." She continued, "As minors, we can't do anything about it. It was a confusing time. It is brainwashing — call it what it is." Tyree told the outlet, "It was a hard pill to swallow — it put a little lump in my throat. But I lived through the first birth, so I just reassured myself: "You're going to be OK. You can do this."' 

'I felt very trapped'

Tyree acknowledged that after her marriage, there was "nothing they could do," as she had found herself a mother of two at a very early age, isolated from both adults and other people her age. She discovered out she was pregnant again at the age of 16, but this time, she claimed, things were different because she was worried about sexual abuse being perpetrated against her children. She revealed, "When I became pregnant again, I felt very trapped, so I made the decision to terminate the pregnancy and I escaped without a plan."

'No sign of relief until 18'

In order to pay her rent, Tyree took a job assembling bicycles at Toys R Us as she proceeded to rebuild her life. She couldn't, however, "breathe a sigh of relief" until she was 18 when her divorce was officially finalized and she was awarded legal custody of her children.

'Our legal system failed to protect me'

Tyree didn't research child marriage until 2018. She claimed that after being inspired to look into what had occurred to her as a teenager, she was shocked to learn that it was not an unusual occurrence. UNICEF defines child marriage as "Any formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18 and an adult or another child." Surprisingly, according to Unchained At Last, it was permitted in all 50 states as recently as 2017. And a 2021 research discovered that between 2000 and 2018, 300,000 children under the age of 18 legally wed in the US. In a prior interview with Yes Magazine, Tyree stated that she quickly realized "our legal system had failed to protect me." 

'Child marriage has no moral compass'

When Tyree told people her story, they frequently inquired as to whether she belonged to a religious cult. She stated, "The answer is no. My parents were not religious at all. The truth is, child marriage stretches across all economic, social, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. It knows no moral compass." The activist made the decision to use her experience to speak out against child abuse and to promote the prohibition of child marriage.