Actress Jessica Simpson has opened up about her healing process after she was sexually abused by a family friend as a child.
Simpson, 39, claimed it was necessary to her healing to confront her abuser, according to an interview published Wednesday by People magazine.
“I needed to confront my abuser,” Simpson told the outlet. “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.”
“I felt like a lot of who I am, the character of who I am, was built through the trials and the pain of abuse,” she added. “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, from 6 to 12 years old.”
Simpson opened up about the sexual abuse in her new memoir, “Open Book.” (RELATED: Jessica Simpson Reveals Details About Childhood Sexual Abuse, Addiction Struggle In New Memoir)
“It would start with tickling my back and then go into things that were extremely uncomfortable,” she wrote in her book.
Simpson said she didn’t want to “hurt anybody” after the abuse happened.
“I was a preacher’s daughter,” she said. “I was taught to be a virgin until I got married, and so I never wanted to share these sexual things that were happening because I didn’t want to hurt anybody.”