News: Halle Berry opens up about her horrific childhood trauma from domestic violence #Unite4Humanity

Halle Berry was honoured last night for her work with the Jenesse Centre, an L.A.-based domestic violence intervention program.

As Halle revealed when accepting her award at Thursday's unite4:humunity gala, she has a personal reason for becoming involved in this particular charity. "I wasn't married to a man that beat me up, but my mother was."

She recalled being five years old when she first witnessed her mother being beaten, "day after day after day," and remembers watching her "kicked down stairs" and hit in the head with a bottle.

"Knowing that she wanted nothing more then for her little girls to see her be empowered and be a woman of strength, but having no way to make that happen was heartbreaking for me," said the Oscar-winner.

"She stayed for too long and her children, my sister and I, saw far too much and I've suffered the damage of being a child of domestic violence," she admitted.

"The reason I say this organization is my heart and soul is because I understand the good that it does and the lives that it changes and the impact it has on women and the children in our community," she added.