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This is Us star says she suffered childhood abuse

Photo credit: NBC Universal / Getty Images
Photo credit: NBC Universal / Getty Images

From Digital Spy

These days, actress Chrissy Metz receives plenty of accolades for her role as Kate on the NBC drama This Is Us. But she's had to overcome a lot of adversity to get where she is today.

People reports that as a child, she had to deal with years of horrible abuse from her stepfather, as she details in her new memoir This Is Me: Loving the Person You Are Today, which comes out on March 27.

Metz says her family dealt with poverty after her father left, leaving them to deal with uncertainty around where their next meal would come from. She added that because she grew up without much food, she felt that she had to eat whatever food there was before it went away.

When her mother remarried, her stepfather, who went by the name Trigger, had a particular issue with his new stepdaughter's weight.

Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images

"My body seemed to offend him, but he couldn't help but stare, especially when I was eating," Metz recalled in her book. "He joked about putting a lock on the refrigerator."

When she was in her teens, Trigger would weigh her, and ask: "Why are you getting fatter?" Because of Trigger's behaviour, she had to eat in secret in the middle of the night.

She says he was physically abusive as well as emotionally abusive, but her mother never saw him act this way because she was always at work.

Photo credit: Getty Images
Photo credit: Getty Images

"He never punched my face. Just my body, the thing that offended him so much," she wrote. "I remember being on the kitchen floor after he knocked me over, and I was begging to know what I did."

She says her past trauma has helped her learn important lessons. With the passage of time, Trigger has apologised for what he did, and things are positive with him now.

"We have a relationship now," Metz says. "I do love him and I do care about him."


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