Carey Peña | Contributing Writer It was nearly 5 p.m. and the news was in full swing. I was the main evening anchor at the time and that’s when I first met Brandon Lee. He was in Phoenix to interview for a job at KTVK and management brought him into the studio to observe our newscast. He was friendly and well put-together. Little did I know that beneath that smile and the impeccable suit he was hiding so many secrets. Lee got the job and he and I later became co- anchors. We also became very good friends. Still, I had no idea about the demons that had followed him since childhood. Slowly, as time went on, he began to share with me that he was a recovered alcoholic. Newscaster Brandon Lee uses the power of his voice to help others overcome addiction ESCAPING ROCK BOTTOM “People who are on TV have immense pressure by the companies they work for to portray that they have some perfect life,” Lee said. “I challenge that way of thinking. Because we don’t relate to perfection. We relate to one another when we open up and share our trauma and our scars.” COMING CLEAN To begin truly healing, Lee decided it was time to share his story. All of it. Not only was he an alcoholic, Lee also dealt with drug addiction and sexual abuse. He writes about all of this in his new memoir, “Mascara Boy. Bullied, Assaulted & Near Death: Surviving Trauma & Addiction” and we talked about it on my podcast. CAREY’S CORNER {carey peña reports} 18 FRONTDOORS MEDIA | AUGUST 2019

In 2018 Lee left his job at KTVK — a station where he was very well liked and had a lucrative contract. He felt so strongly that he needed to tell his story, he parted ways with the station on friendly terms, packed his house and moved back to his hometown of Los Angeles. He rolled the dice. Returning to LA without another job in news lined up was a risk he was willing to take. Lee grew up in an upper-class home in Orange County. From the outside, some might say he had a perfect life. He’s the only boy of three siblings. He was very athletic, especially excelling at soccer. He also loved music. That’s when, Lee explained to me, the sexual abuse began. “Every mistake that I made, he assaulted me,” Lee said about his piano teacher. “And that abuse got worse and more graphic over time.” He also shared that he was assaulted by one of his youth soccer coaches, but was terrified to tell anyone. “I felt the shame, I felt guilty, I felt like I had done something. I felt dirty,” he said. By the age of 15, Brandon Lee was living a dangerous double life. He explained in frank detail how he would go Lee and Carey Peña (top left and left) were co-anchors at KTVK, and remain friends today. For years, two-time Emmy-winning journalist Brandon Lee led a double life. Sexually abused by his piano teacher and soccer coach, he sought solace in drugs and alcohol before getting sober. AUGUST 2019 | FRONTDOORS MEDIA 19