Neighbours Nicola Charles’ book ‘too brutal’ for publishers

Actor Nicola Charles says she’s a survivor of sexual abuse at the hands of her neighbour. So there was no way she was going to follow publishers’ demands to censor her novel — no matter the cost.

Alan Fletcher with Nicola Charles in scene from Neighbours. Their storyline was one of the biggest in the show’s history.

Neighbours star Nicola Charles knocked back hundreds of thousands of dollars from big-name publishing houses because they wanted to censor her novel, which draws from personal experiences of child molestation.

The book, Click Monkey, reveals the dark world of domestic abuse.

The British-born single mum of three told Page 13 she was offered big bucks for Click Monkey by some major UK publishing houses, but on one condition.

“Without fail, all of them said we apologise, but the content is too brutal,” Charles, 49, said.

Click Monkey: Who Do You Trust with Your Kids has just been released, with a picture of the young Charles on the cover.

Actor Nicola Charles has revealed the dark world of domestic abuse in her book. Picture: Jason Edwards

The cover of Click Monkey.

It touches on issues society keeps in the shadows, such as domestic abuse, toxic relationships and child molestation.

“They all wanted to cut the child molestation part out. But hiding it away and lying about it didn’t sit very well,” Charles said.

She says the novel’s protagonist, Ingrid, is loosely based on her.

The novel draws from Charles’ experiences growing up within her parents’ destructive marriage and being sexually abused as a child by her neighbour and other men.

Charles doesn’t see herself as a victim but as a survivor.

“I think the abuse occurred because my parents were so distracted within their toxic marriage that they didn’t realise the next-door neighbour was sexually abusing me,” she said.

Charles went on to have a successful career as a model and actor, playing the memorable role
of Sarah Beaumont in Australia’s longest running soap.

Her Ramsay St affair with Alan Fletcher’s Dr Karl became one of the biggest storylines in Neighbours history.

“I was drawn to acting because it gave me a way to stop being me, even for five minutes,” she said.

Charles’ character had an affair on the popular TV show.

Charles in 1997.

But it was around the time of her second stint on Neighbours that Charles found herself in an abusive relationship, feeling like a cornered animal and unable to speak out.

“Ingrid was inspired by my own experiences because I grew up inside my parents’ toxic marriage for 18 years,” Charles said from her new country Victoria base. But like Ingrid I also found myself in that situation as an adult.

“I don’t think I’m a bad judge of character, but the thing with narcissists is they wear a mask; the one I knew wore one for five years. Then … he changed personality.

“I thought that’s like something you read in a book, so I started writing down things and started recording conversations.

“Sometimes I honestly thought during some of those encounters that I may not be alive by the end of it.”

When the abuse was targeted toward her teenage daughter, Charles knew she had to get out.

“It felt like a switch went off inside me. It was like it’s one thing to do it to me, but you don’t do that to my child. And that was that.”

Writing the novel was a cathartic experience, although she never thought it would see the light of day.

It took becoming an ambassador for Red Flags, a campaign spearheaded by mental health counsellor Shannan Thomas, who was repeatedly bashed and abused by former Kangaroos premiership player Shannon Grant, to realise she needed others to share in her story.

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At a Red Flags for Domestic Violence breakfast at Crown last week to help raise awareness of abuse, people “burst out crying”.

“My hair and clothes were soaked in other people tears,” said Charles. “To them I’m Sarah Beaumont, I’m not Nicola Charles.

“These people, other survivors, would just fall into me and bawl their eyes out, thanking me from the depths of their heart.”

Charles woke up every morning at 3am to write Click Monkey before her three children got up to get ready for school.

Next in the pipeline is a comedic novel, with the memorable title The Witches of Toorak.

For confidential information, counselling and support for those impacted by domestic violence call national helpline 1800 737732 (1800 RESPECT)

— with Cormac Pearson