While several journalists covering the TV industry and TV critics were aware and made aware of Yvonne van den Bergh's private life (TV with Thinus and several others included) and told about her dominatrix persona by a man, nobody reported on it.
The actress, known for roles on kykNET (DStv 144) in dramas like Vallei van Sluiers, Getroud met Rugby and Petra in the SABC2 soap 7de Laan, decided to come forward herself and is explaining on Facebook about her until now secret persona of Mistress Baton and why she loves tying up men naked and then dishing out hit after hit until the blood flows.
An obsessed European stalker recently started to harass her, finding her work numbers and email and sending photos and information to her agent, TV critics, friends, broadcasters like kykNET, sponsors and the South African Guild of Actors.
Yvonne van den Bergh was fearful of the media discovering her life as Mistress Baton and the BDSM world her husband Jacques du Preez, the former Geraas presenter on SABC2 introduced her to, and decided to come forward herself and tell people about her "BDSM journey".
"Seeing slaves being whipped in old TV series and films, was another favourite of mine throughout my childhood," she writes. "I didn't know about BDSM and that I would be able to do it to people with their consent as well as their pleasure until I was a teenager and even more well-read than I was as a child."
"I chose a profession where I work in the public eye. Those two things, motherhood and my fear of public exposure, kept me from acting on my sadistic impulses for many years."
"Imagine the prejudice a kind and loving mother, who works where thousands can watch her, might expect if it became known she loves caning and whipping men! That is the reason I waited so many years to start my BDSM journey."
"Eventually, it was my wonderful husband who decided to gently push me into it and his support helped me overcome my fear of exposure."
"Now I don't care about other people's issues and uninformed prejudice anymore. I don't fear exposure anymore. I'm not going to ignore such a big part of my life, which I enjoy so much, because the world is bigoted."
"The moment I first put cane to bum, I knew it would become a very big part of my life. I will never stop doing it," writes Yvonne van den Bergh. "I love giving intense pleasure through intense pain. I love deriving intense pleasure by inflicting intense pain."
