NEWS ANALYSIS

Twice Adopted: Michael Reagan’s Journey to Wholeness

November 1, 2004

CBN.com – Michael Reagan's first adoption gave him his identity, as the son of a movie star, and later, as the son of a president, Ronald Reagan. But it was his “second” adoption that took his life in a dramatic new direction. In his new book, Twice Adopted, Michael Reagan talks openly about growing up in the Reagan family, and the sexual abuse he experienced as a child that shaped his life for decades to come. In a recent interview, Pat Robertson asked Reagan about the traumatic experience of his molestation by a camp counselor when he was eight years old.

PAT ROBERTSON: Michael Reagan is more than just a son of a former president. His radio program is heard on more than 200 stations in America. He is also a successful author. We understand that he set power boat records, and he’s written a new book called Twice Adopted. Michael joins us now from our news bureau in Washington. Michael, it is so good to have you with us.

MICHAEL REAGAN: Thank you, Pat.

ROBERTSON: At the Reagan funeral, I happened to be in the National Cathedral and joined that crowd of mourners, and then at the funeral ceremony in California, you gave a marvelous message from the heart of what Jesus meant to you. How has that been received by your family and by others?

REAGAN: By others, it has been received quite well. I did not give [the speech], thinking how it was going to be received by others. It really just came to me. I had friends of mine that left prayers for me on my cell phone. They knew I was going to speak first, and just offered prayers that I’d find the words to say at the funeral. I was glad I was able to find the words and share in four and half minutes what my father meant to me. The greatest gift he gave to me was knowing that that day he was with God in Heaven. I’m still working on the family. My brother Ron said he is an atheist. I tell him I pray for him every day, as I pray for Nancy and Patti. My dad and I would be able to share the love of Christ. We shared that over and above being a father and son. But it took the love of Christ to finally understand each other and be able to just share as dad and son.

ROBERTSON: Your father had a deep faith. I think he got it from his mother. Is that the true Reagan that you knew?

REAGAN: Oh yes, he always was a man of faith. And Nell certainly instilled that in the children, not only my dad, but also his brother ‘Moon,’ Neil Reagan. So faith was always there for my dad. My dad, as you well know, when he was shot back in March of 1981, after he came out of it, he offered up his presidency to Christ the Lord. I think that was an important thing when he did that. Ultimately, in 1987, when we were flying back from Washington D.C., he shared with me he was looking forward to leaving the presidency and go to church on a regular basis on Sunday. He was worried that maybe he would put people in harm's way, and was looking forward to going back to church each Sunday. Which he did, up until the time he could no longer go to church because of his disease.

ROBERTSON: Your brother, who you said is an atheist, joined the Democrats and their convention, and came out really against Bush in relation to the issue of stem cell research. What is your take on that?

REAGAN: I think this is his way of voting against George W. Bush. Not so much for Kerry, but against Bush and the stem cell issue. What is interesting, is there is no law that you can't have private sector money for stem cell research. It’s going on as you and I speak. I sat on the board of the Alzheimer’s Foundation that is chaired by Art Linkletter. This is something we discuss on a regular basis. I know most people argue it from pro-choice and pro-life, and you can certainly argue it from that point, but also in the laboratories in the United States and the world, where embryonic stem cells are injected into lab mice and rats, it is causing cancer and tumors in the lab rats and mice. No one wants to get into an industry that looks at lawsuits later on down the line, if somebody would get cancer and tumors. The unfortunate thing, Pat, adult stem cells are working in diseases, and cord blood cells. It is 90 percent effective in sickle cell anemia, leukemia lymphomas, and they are getting a short shrift on this. No one is talking about the good that adult stem cells and cord blood cells are doing. Now it has been made into a political issue, and may ultimately cost lives.

ROBERTSON: In your book, there is a very poignant chapter about molestation when you were a kid. Apparently there was a counselor or coach?

REAGAN: Day camp counselor. Not only that, Pat, molestation was one thing, but remember, he took pornographic pictures of me, and had me develop the pictures and said to me, wouldn't your mother like to have a copy of this? That was when I was eight years old. I thought my life was over at that point. I thought I would never earn my way into the Reagan family. I was a young kid looking for love, looking for affirmation, and living in a broken home. I needed that. I think every child needs that love and affirmation. What I try to do in the book is try to explain through a child’s eyes what we are seeing as children, so that adults can understand that, and parents can understand that, and maybe others who have gone through the same thing I went through -- child molestation for a year of my life, child pornography, which was just devastating to me; it is something that will live with me all of my life. I worried about my father's career being ruined because of those photos possibly becoming public during the governorship campaign or the presidential campaign of the 1980’s, and people would find out the evil person I believed wholeheartedly that I was.

ROBERTSON: You were strictly a victim and yet you took the blame. You thought there was something you’d done wrong.

REAGAN: We all do. There is not a child who is molested who does not take all the blame. It is put onto us. We are asked to carry the blame whether it is Uncle Charley, who I talked about in the book, who is exonerated in the family, and the child is asked to carry it. We are always asked to carry it. We commit suicide, we become alcoholics and drug addicts and murderers, and everything else because it is easier to live as an alcoholic or drug addict or a murderer, than it is to live with the shame of what happened to you as a child. On the male side of it, one of the other things, if you are touched by a male, you worry about your sexuality. I was so worried about what people would think of me. Was I gay or straight? I used to go out and buy prostitutes when I was 16 years old, steal money from my dad’s wallet, just to prove to myself that I was heterosexual, and that only lasted minutes. Later on, I was still worried wondered that he would think and the world would think I was gay, and I couldn't live with it.

ROBERTSON: Michael, it is tough to open up to something like this and write a book about it. Is it a cathartic effect to put that on paper, or a great warning to others of what people should do with their children?

REAGAN: It is something I’ve talked about. Doing talk radio, doing what you do.What are the issues we talk about today? Adoption and illegitimacy, and broken homes and molestation, and child pornography. Whatever reason, I lived all of those things. I don’t think I lived them to get through them; to just sit back and say I did it, and now it’s your turn to try it on for size. That’s why I wrote the book Twice Adopted, because the second adoption is the real important one. Without my wife coming into my life, a Christian woman, and praying for me, finding out others were praying for me and finally, instead of being angry at God and thinking God hated me, to try to accept God, and ultimately accepting God and being adopted into His family, you and I wouldn't be having this conversation.

ROBERTSON: Michael, it is a marvelous book. I recommend it to the people in this audience. It’s by Michael Reagan, it’s called Twice Adopted. You ought to get a copy. Thank you for your influence, and the work you are doing. I really appreciate you.

REAGAN: Thank you, Pat.