Michelle Knight, who changed her legal name to Lily Rose Lee, started speaking out almost immediately about her heartbreaking and harrowing experience inside the Cleveland “House of Horrors,” where she stayed for 11 years with fellow captives Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus. While the other two girls stayed close and worked on their book together, Michelle Knight was out on her own. Why aren’t all the girls in closer contact?
Michelle is even estranged from her own family. After years of watching Amanda see updates of her family’s vigil to find her on television over the years while her own parents remained silent, she’s found it difficult to resume a relationship with them. Dr. Phil offered her extensive treatment in exchange for sharing her story on his show, so thankfully Michelle has been able to find ways to cope with everything she’s been through and develop a support systems.
She published a New York Times bestselling memoir, which was adapted for a Lifetime movie that premieres this Saturday. Her fellow captives Amanda and Gina told their story to Robin Roberts, and are releasing their own joint memoir this week. All of the girls have expressed support for each other for enduring this insanely traumatic experience together. Gina was even chained to Michelle for several years, and she said they got along “in the beginning.” She said Michelle and Amanda have a lot of tension because Castro would pit them against each other.
Michelle said she became pregnant with captor Ariel Castro’s babies five times, and each time he induced miscarriage by starving her and kicking her in the stomach. She also helped deliver Amanda Berry’s child with Castro in a kiddie pool. He told her that if Amanda’s baby died, then he would kill Michelle.
“We’re two different people,” Amanda said to People about Michelle. “We all went through something really, really bad that probably only the three of us will ever understand. I wish her the best in the future.”
Michelle has said that DeJesus is a like a “sister,” to her, but “I’m letting them go their own way and they’re letting me go my way. In the end, I hope that we get back together again.”
