Gloria Estefan reveals she was abused by family member aged nine on Red Table Talk with fellow victim Clare Crawley

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After Crawley described being abused by a "counselor" while attending Catholic school, she also stated that she was "the victim of a predator".

Estafan showed empathy for Crawley. 

"I wanted to deal with this subject matter because it is so important to try to prevent,” Estefan told Crawley during an episode of .

“I also did not want to sit here quietly while you share and are brave.”

ABUSER WAS ‘TRUSTED’ FAMILY

Ms Estefan, whose hits include Conga and Rhythm is Gonna Get You, said the music school family member manipulated her mother's trust.

“I was 9-years-old when this happened and it was someone that my mother trusted,” Estefan said, adding that her mother enrolled her to study classical music.  

The man started by showering the then-young girl with praise. 

“He immediately started telling her how talented I was and how I needed special attention,” she said.

And her mother “felt lucky” that he was “focusing this special attention on me.”

‘LITTLE BY LITTLE’

The singer said her abuser started with seemingly innocent praise. 

“He put it in a way like, ‘Oh you're so good at this’ and ‘Let me teach you,’” she said. 

She added: “It starts little by little and then it goes fast.”

DEATH THREAT ON MOM

After she raised her protest the man threatened her mother, Estefan believed the man would follow through with it. 

“I knew the man was insane and that's why I thought he would actually hurt my mother,” she said. 

So Estefan attempted to feign illness or invent excuses to skip school any way she could to avoid coming in contact with her abuser.

“I tried every which way to get out of going to that school,” she said. “I invented that I was sick.”

She further felt like she was isolated because her mother considered discussing such devastating incidents to be off-limits. 

“That was not talked about at all in her lifetime,” she said.