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JESSICA REVEALS HER ‘PAINFUL, SHOCKING’ PAST
Singer Jessica Simpson forced herself to endure an “extremely painful” confrontation with her childhood abuser in order to allow herself to heal from the trauma. She goes public with her secret past as a sex abuse victim in her new memoir — Open Book — sharing that she was molested by the daughter of a family friend during sleepovers from the age of six to 12, reports aceshowbiz.com.
Her struggle to process the trauma contributed to Simpson’s downward spiral of substance abuse. She only managed to conquer it in late 2017, when she sought therapy. And to aid her journey of healing, she had to face off with her attacker, who had also been abused as a child.
“I needed to confront my abuser. It was extremely painful and still is. It’s still shocking. That little girl in me wanting to do the right thing, not knowing how to stand up for herself and not knowing how to stop it,” she told people.com, adding, “I felt like a lot of who I am, the character of who I am, was built through the trials and pain of abuse. I allowed it to happen, so I felt that I was as much of the abuser as the abused. So I was very shameful during that time...”
A preacher’s daughter, she recalls eventually summoning up the courage to tell her parents about the intimate incidents.
She said on a show: “I was taught to be a virgin until I got married, so I never wanted to share these sexual things...”
The issue was effectively ignored by her family, but her parents made sure she was never subjected to the abuse again.