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TV personality Valerie Bertinelli<\/a> has revealed that she was sexually abused at age 11 in her new book, and says she never planned to share as much as she did.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI had no plans to reveal this,\u201d Bertinelli, now 65, told People<\/a> in an interview published Wednesday. \u201cThis was going to be a book about teaching people how to love themselves. I did not know that I would go this far.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bertinelli\u2019s book, \u201cGetting Naked,\u201d<\/a> will come out on March 10. Discussing the process of writing about her abuse, she explained, \u201cI guess because I\u2019m healing from it, it\u2019s not so scary anymore. I can say it out loud. I was sexually assaulted. It doesn\u2019t feel like it owns me anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While writing the book, Bertinelli said, she explored \u201cthe parts that I thought were shameful and come to find out they\u2019re not. They\u2019re all kinds of different facets of what makes us who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bertinelli purposely opened the chapter where she discusses her abuse with a photo of herself at age 11 \u201cbecause that was the little girl that was sexually abused,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt boggles my mind that this little girl was taken advantage of that way. It boggles my mind because it\u2019s still happening … and I\u2019m furious about it. And we need to start speaking up and saying, \u2018Enough.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bertinelli said the decision to go public with the abuse was a 10-year process.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe very first time I said it out loud to my therapist, I thought <\/span>I\u2019m going to feel better now.<\/span><\/em> It got worse before it got better,\u201d she explained. \u201cI maybe ate a little bit more, drank a little bit more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWhen you stop eating things for comfort, stop drinking alcohol, it exposes your feelings. You can deal with them or not. And I chose to deal with them. I don\u2019t feel shame about it anymore. I\u2019m pissed off that it happened. Nobody deserves that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n In January 2024, Bertinelli went viral after she took to Instagram to <\/span>address online mockery of her gray hair<\/span><\/a> and her use of filters in a \u201cPSA\u201d video.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n She said things came to a head that year after she had \u201ca huge anxiety attack\u201d that made her realize she needed to focus on herself \u2015 especially her long-held self-criticism and shame over her body.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAll of that shame had nothing to do with my body,\u201d she told People. \u201cIt was just something to take out my shame on. My poor body. I was so mean to it. I just needed to get all those voices out of my head. As I was going through that, I\u2019m thinking people are going to wonder, why do I have so much self loathing?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Last May, Bertinell shared <\/span>another Instagram post<\/span><\/a> in which she acknowledged she had just experienced \u201c<\/span>some of the most emotionally excruciating eight months of my life<\/span><\/a>\u201d while adding, \u201cI don\u2019t know that I would change any of it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n As for that 11-year-old girl in the picture that begins the harrowing chapter of her new book, Bertinelli said she \u201cloved to color, read, play with my Barbies and ride my bike around the block. I loved my cats. I was just a little girl.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Now, she is something more: \u201cI\u2019m a survivor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Read the full interview here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n