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Brooke Shields spoke out about her sexual harassment in the 2023 documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, but her youngest daughter knew nothing about the assault until she saw the film.
“Part of motherhood is learning from your children,” the author of Brooks Shields is Not Allowed to Get Old told People.
“I didn’t prepare her,” the 59-year-old mother of two said. “It was a miscommunication.”
‘I explained that it was an investigation into the sexualization of women in my industry, but I naively thought she would say, “Wow, you’ve been through a lot, but look where we are today.”‘
Her daughter Grier, 18, on the other hand, reacted very differently.
“I was learning about things at the same time as the world, and I was just taking it deeper and more personally,” the teen told the outlet. “I couldn’t even get through it.”
Brooke Shields spoke about sexual abuse in the 2023 documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, but her youngest daughter knew nothing about the attack until she saw the film
“I said to her, ‘But there is a happy ending,’” Shields replied, “and she said, ‘I will never accept that I think something bad happened to you.’”
“She missed the happy part,” the Golden Globe nominee said.
“She felt helpless. And just like mothers, we make mistakes and sometimes we make assumptions.”
The Mother of the Bride actress said her eldest daughter, Rowan, 21, knew about the attack before she saw the film.
She has two daughters with her husband Chris Henchy, 60.
The Emmy-nominated documentary looked back at Shields’ career, including her rise to fame as a child actress playing a prostitute in the controversial 1978 film Pretty Baby.
She also spoke about her roles in the films The Blue Lagoon and Endless Love and the impact that life as a teenage sex symbol had on her life.
Shields is the mother of Rowan, 21 (left), and Grier, 18 (right). “Part of being a mother is learning from your children,” the author of Brooks Shields is Not Allowed to Get Old told People. “I didn’t prepare her (Grier),” the 59-year-old mother of two said. “It was a miscommunication.”
Shields revealed that she was sexually assaulted for the first time publicly in the Emmy-nominated documentary. She chose to identify her attacker
“I was learning about things at the same time as the world and I was just taking it deeper and more personal,” the teen told the outlet. “I couldn’t even get through it.” (Pictured in New York City in March 2023)
Shields shares her daughters with her husband Chris Henchy, 60. She wants her daughters to know that the story has a “happy ending” and that she is “not completely damaged” by the attack (Pictured in New York City in March 2023)
In this film, she revealed publicly for the first time that she had been sexually abused by a powerful Hollywood figure in her early twenties.
Shields has chosen not to release the name of her attacker.
“To see the documentary or to see your parents as a public figure that other people have an opinion about, it’s just a weird situation. I learned a lot from listening to them,” Shields said.
Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields is available to stream on Hulu.