In living life after a traumatic event, Bianca Valerio dispels any notion that the trauma has to define her
This is an excerpt from the MEGA March 2025 MEGA Matters features story
When you read this, there are two things that you need to know. The first is what happened: On March 30, 2022, Bianca Valerio, a well- respected host, author, and speaker, revealed in an Instagram post that she was sexually assaulted. She did not name the man in the initial video, but rumors were rife. It took two years after that post before a warrant of arrest was issued by the court. Then, Bianca’s Instagram had a new update. It was a poster giving details about the alleged perpetrator. It was Gibson Arca, once a PR executive and now a wanted man.
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Aside from the context, the second thing you need to wrap your head around is that Bianca will upend whatever it is you think you know about the narratives surrounding trauma.
Bianca’s story is sadly, not an uncommon one. There are far too many stories like hers, with names like Gisele Pelicot and Cassie Ventura being reported on the news. There is a whole movement to make abusive people accountable for their actions. However, there is no room for cliches in stories as personal as theirs. Headlines be damned, Bianca makes it abundantly clear that no one should get lost in the fray.
“One speaks up and it’s almost like, you are suddenly put in a box. You are stereotyped, and it is like another type of punishment that people put on you whether or not they realize it,” Bianca said. “The way they portray sexual assault victims or victims of abuse, it is almost like one day you are the normal Bianca, and then the next day you are just like put in a box when you are literally still the same person.”
But how does one stay true to yourself in the face of a life-changing event? In many ways, biology itself is against it. It has long been known to science that trauma alters people’s bodies. In the brain, the hippocampus shrinks while the amygdala hyperactivates after a traumatic experience. The body produces more cortisol, even after the threat is long gone. There are even studies that indicate that people who experience trauma have altered gut microbiomes.
But these parts are not the whole. It was not an amygdala that told her sister about the experience of assault, choosing to write a letter to ensure she got the words just right. It was Bianca who did that. The same Bianca who took charge of her narrative when she decided to reveal what happened to her under her own terms. Perhaps unironically, she decided to make that first Instagram post public because—as trauma research author Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D. would put it—her body kept the score.
Read more of what happened to Bianca Valerio after this life-changing event in MEGA’s March 2025 issue, now available on Readly, Magzter, Press Reader and Zinio.
Photographed by RIA REGINO. Sittings Editor STEF JUAN. Makeup by BIANCA VALERIO. Hair by PATTY CRISTOBAL.
