Ashley Judd reveals sexual abuse and lonely childhood in memoir

We loved her strength as an abused wife Libby who fought back after being imprisoned in ‘Double Jeopardy’. We were moved by the emotions she displayed as Jane Goodale in ‘Someone Like You”. A talented actress and a brainy one with a Harvard degree, actress Ashley Judd has not been without dark beginnings as she revealed her ‘lonely childhood’ in a memoir released Tuesday.

The star for “Where the Heart Is” bared her childhood in her memoir titled, “All That Is Bitter and Sweet”. Underscoring her young life as ‘lonely and painful’, Judd said that she had suffered sexual abuse even admitting considering suicide as she watched her mother Naomi Judd and sister Wynonna was finding their places in the music scene.

Reuters said that Judd spoke of neglect, trauma and different forms of abuse in an interview with “Today” show on Tuesday.

"My family of origin, the one into which I was born, was also brimming with love but was not a healthy family system. There was too much trauma, abandonment, addiction and shame," the actress was quoted from an excerpt of her memoir released Tuesday.

In the book, the 42-year-old actress discussed how she was molested by a family friend as a teenager. She also braved describing the inappropriate behavior she had witnessed of her mother and her many new boyfriends. The actress as noted in memoir survived the drugs and her mother’s gun loitering in the corners of her home. She had also illustrated the in her memoir the many occasions she had played with her mother’s gun when the effects of the emotional abuse would set in.

Judd’s painful childhood memories have stayed in the dark even to the actress until she courageously sat down in a therapy and unearthed the repressed memories lurking in her system.

And after learning all about them, Jill Sergeant of Reuters noted Judd saying in an interview with “Today” that she wanted everyone to learn from it, prompting her to pen her memoir.

"I was really encouraged by people I trust to include some of my own story, because why I love (humanitarian) work really baffled people, and so I eventually got willing to put it there," the actress explained.

The book she said hopes to explain the kind of humanitarian work that she has chosen to be involved in. The actress is now active advocating for impoverished and abused women in slums, brothels and refugee camps.

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