The Disturbing Story of Brooke Shields
Hollywood has never been kind to kids with 15 seconds of fame being almost a perfect formula for a lifetime of consequences. But of every story out there, that of Brook Shields is the most disturbing. She started modeling before she was one, who was signed to Playboy at 10, portrayed Woody Allen’s crush at 11, a prostitute at 12, and was given directions no actor, let alone a child actor, should receive.
sh0ck Just sit there and take it. Yeah, I really got smacked. sh0ck They wanted to witness something really happen. I don’t know what they were thinking. sh0ck When Blue Lagoon made Brooke a mega star, time declared her the face of the decade. Yet, she was only 15. Then, the moment she became an adult, Hollywood decided she was done.
sh0ck I went to university, got an education, and came out, people were mad cuz I wasn’t manipulatable in the same way. sh0ck While this story is ultimately uplifting and inspiring, first it gets dark. So, as much as possible, I’ve referenced the real words of the people involved, including Brook’s mother, who had a very specific vision for her daughter the day she was born.
sh0ck The day I brought her home from the hospital, I just knew she’d be a star. A star. sh0ck Brooke looked like a beautiful doll. Terry Shield says, “I couldn’t believe she was mine.” And she means mine, literally. Brook’s father, a cosmetics executive at Revlon, had initially given Terry an envelope filled with cash, believing Terry was going to end the pregnancy.
But, as Brooke writes in her memoir, which I will reference as a key source, her mother had no intention of getting an abortion, but saw no reason not to take the cash. So, Terry keeps the cash and the baby, the most beautiful thing that I’d ever seen in my life. Her beauty was going to contribute to mankind.
Brook’s sort of like a work of art and like any beautiful painting. I think the world should enjoy Brooke and view her. sh0ck So Terry starts Brooke in modeling. sh0ck My first job was for Abby soap when I was 11 months old and I was just this little baby and I was handing my mother a bar soap sh0ck with the tagline for younglooking skin like this.
Nothing’s more important than Ivory’s purity and mildness. The job is successful, but because Brooke isn’t signed to an agency, Terry organizes a meeting with Eileen Ford. Eileen is the owner of Ford Models, the top modeling agency globally, which essentially defined the agency system that still exists today. In their meeting, Terry stood in front of Eileen’s desk with her hands on her hips and explained, “This agency doesn’t have a children’s division, and it should.
Brooke will be your first child model.” And so she is. I was actually board modeling’s sh0ck first child. I started off their child agency sh0ck with Terry assuming the role of Brook’s manager. sh0ck She was the original mamaager, if you will. sh0ck Terry oversees Brook’s work on commercials like this one for Band-Aid. sh0ck A cut heals better when it’s kept covered, and that means a fresh bandage once in a while.
Band-aid brand bandages from Johnson and Johnson. It heals better when it’s covered. sh0ck But Terry’s work is hindered by a problem. When Brooke is 2 or 3 years old, her mother knocks on the door of a male neighbor in the evenings and says, “I’m going out for a drink. Here, just take her for a bit.” She would leave me there and we would hang out.
He and I would just climb into bed and fall asleep. Before mom would eventually return and take me back upstairs, Terry later puts Brooke in precarious positions professionally despite Brooke growing up sh0ck Catholic and I do go to church and and I’m practicing Catholic. When she is 10, Terry books her for a Playboy publication called Sugar and Spice.
Without going into detail, the shoot is like any other one for that magazine. It is run by photographer Gary Gross who Terry on behalf of Brooke allows unrestricted ownership of the photos in a contract which reads, “I hereby give the photographer, those acting with his permission or his employees the right and permission to copyright and or use, reuse and republish photographic pictures or portraits of me, or in which I may be distorted in character or form in conjunction with my own or a fictitious name for any purpose
whatsoever. However, I hereby wave any right to inspect or approve the finished photograph or advertising copy or printed matter or to the eventual use that it might be applied to most people. Signing this on behalf of your 10-year-old for a Playboy shoot would be absolutely insane. And keep these terms in mind as they’ll be important later.
But to Brooke at the time, these kinds of shoots feel normal. We were in the art world surrounded by models. Everybody walked around naked. there was a freedom to it. Terry, however, knows exactly what she’s doing. In an interview, which I can’t show in the video, but we’ll link in the description so you can verify the statements, Terry reflects on her daughter’s appeal to viewers.
Not only can they see total innocence, which is definitely there. They have the s*xy person, too, that appeals to them. It’s a forbidden fruit, and yet it’s all wrapped up in one, and that is really appetizing. In other modeling shoots from this period, Brooke poses fully clothed with adults doing the jobs her mother wants. sh0ck We all are aspiring to get approval from our mommies and daddies and it’s primal and it’s just a lot of work.
sh0ck And yet I’d been parenting her, Brook says from the time I was a little girl. sh0ck Child of an alcoholic learned at a very early age how to navigate a situation, how to read a room, and how to keep the person they love alive. From the time I could remember, I was protecting my mama. She was my life force.
She was my food source. She was everything. And I needed that. sh0ck Despite feeling insecure as to who I was and inadequate in getting my mother to stop drinking. As Terry’s struggles with alcohol worsen, Brooke finds solace in work. Felt much better about myself when I worked. So, I began to crave my jobs. However, when that work becomes movies, Hollywood will almost instantly give her a disturbing tcast.
At 11, Brooke makes her film debut in the horror movie Alice. Sweet Alice, sh0ck mommy said you wanted to see me. sh0ck And now, why would I want to see you? sh0ck You know, sh0ck and this, possibly, along with her recent photooots, gets her noticed by Woody Allen. In the spring of 1976, Alan starts filming Annie Hall.
In the movie, he plays a divorced comedian, Alvie Singer, who reflects on his relationship with former lover Annie Hall. Brooke, despite being 11, is cast as one of Alvie’s teenage love interests. In Brook’s words, she plays the focus of young Alvie’s obsession, a s*xy pilgrim in a flashback of a Thanksgiving themed school play, dressed in all white with flowing hair, while the others had mismatched clothing and seemed uncomfortable.
After filming, however, a date takes place between Woody Allen and Brook’s mother. The strangest part about doing Annie Hall was that Woody Allen asked my mother out on a date and she went. I think it was only the one night and it was just dinner. But after this, the school play was edited out and my s*xy pilgrim ended up on the cutting room floor.
While it isn’t confirmed if the date or any conversation that took place on it had anything to do with Brooke being cut from the film, Brooke reflects it was fun teasing my mom and accusing her of doing something that made Woody cut me from the film. And her next film extends the same typ cast. sh0ck I love you once, I love you twice. I love you more than beans and rice.
Set in 1917 in Storyville, New Orleans historic red light district, Pretty Baby follows the true story of a girl raised in a brothel by her mother who works as a prostitute. sh0ck Violet, I am your mother. sh0ck No, you’re not. You would say so all the time. sh0ck Aged 12, Brooke plays the lead, Violet, and as you’d expect, doesn’t know much about the subject she’s depicting.
When asked if she knows what prostitution is, she replies, “I see the girls on 42nd Street standing on the corner. I’m always worried that they’re cold.” Brook’s interest is in the clothing and the culture of the period, like an old-fashioned fantasy world. But learning the film’s subject matter is inevitable. sh0ck $275, madam.
sh0ck 300. sh0ck Will you take a check? sh0ck What would I do with a check? sh0ck I got cash. $400 sh0ck sold to the man with 400 cash. sh0ck In addition to being auctioned off to senators and businessmen, Violet kisses a 29-year-old Keith Keredine. sh0ck I had never kissed anybody before, so I didn’t know how to do it. Is it appropriate to portray that on screen using an 11-year-old actor? It wouldn’t be now.
You couldn’t get away with it now. And Brooke has a different kind of physical interaction with Susan Sandon, albeit in a professional environment. sh0ck I really got smacked. sh0ck I wanted to slap a back. sh0ck Later, Brooke will see Pretty Baby as sh0ck the only truly beautiful artistic film I’ve ever even been in.
It’s the one I’m the most proud of. sh0ck But even in the 70s, it’s heavily criticized for playing into perverse fantasies. And just as questionable as the production itself are the interviews booked to promote Brook’s films. Journalist Bill Bogs introduces her as quote a teen angel or Venus in blue jeans or just a beautiful baby. Brooke has established herself as an actress and s*x symbol at an age when most girls are still just girls.
He then tells Brooke every man in the world is potentially interested in you. Even at nine, you had an older look. Refers to her as an incredibly beautiful young woman. you’re what 13 years old now and laments I really like Brook Shields and somebody will say you can get arrested for that and I hate that with comments like that intro is like something out of a horror film and Brooke looks so uncomfortable when her mother is talking the interview linked in the description is particularly illuminating as are other interviews like this
sh0ck I was an actor you could say actor because I’m an actor cuz sh0ck okay more professional sh0ck we’ll keep it covered we won’t say we won’t say sh0ck um and this person didn’t know any of this person’s lines. sh0ck About a foot of distance will be just fine. Around the same time, written publications like this one, which features behind-the-scenes photos from the Annie Hall production, a captioned Milliondoll Jailbait, America’s most famous 12-year-old hooker.
And even female journalists get in on it. For example, here is Barbara Walters. sh0ck Cook, what are your measurements? sh0ck Um, I’m 510 and 120. Let me stand up with you because I’m 5’5 and I’m wearing high heels, okay? Because we haven’t really seen you standing next to someone. sh0ck Because of all this, Brooke shares, “I’ve put more blame and shame on the interviewers than I ever would about Pretty Baby.
” And these interviews all happen under Tererry’s management. Many even including her beside Brooke. sh0ck A lot of my friends come up to me and say, “God, your mom, you know, she’s just she’s just so great. You know, she’s the greatest or whatever.” And I think that it’s good because my friends are open with it. Can’t someone say to you that you are exploiting the sensuality of a child? sh0ck Well, if that’s all I was doing, probably yes.
But that’s not all I’m doing. sh0ck According to Brooke, Terry loved that she was known as Brook Shield’s mother. It gave her a deep and personal validation. We were making it in the world. Making it through jobs, but also through relationships. She loved that I’d briefly dated John Travolta, Jimmy McNichol, Leaf Garrett, Scott Bio, and John Kennedy.
Despite those relationships occurring when Brooke was just 16 in the case of John Travolta, 27, 12 to 13 in the case of Scott Bio, 17 to 18, and 14 in the case of Leaf Garrett, 17. sh0ck Well, you know, Brooke, we’ve both been acting for a long time. sh0ck Shakespeare’s always been my favorite. sh0ck Well, we can do that right now.
sh0ck Do what? sh0ck We’ll play Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet. You know, we were about the ages that Shakespeare had in mind when he wrote it. So, it’ be perfect. sh0ck Yeah. And it’s a classic love story of all times. Let’s do it. sh0ck The following year, Brooke becomes the youngest model ever to appear on the cover of Vogue.
Her modeling fees run as high as $10,000 a day. And after promoting several major cosmetic brands, sh0ck my hair takes a real beating, but Well brings it right back. Hey, if you’re not happy with your hair, get with a Bossome instant conditioner and make your hair come alive. Brooke is booked for a campaign that will become infamous. sh0ck And in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her.
Reading is to the mind what Calvin’s are to the body. sh0ck Calvin Klein jeans. sh0ck Kinds of people who wear Calvin’s. Those who want to remember and those who want to forget. sh0ck Calvin Klein Jeans. sh0ck At 15, Brooke appears in this series of ads for Calvin Klein Jeans. They feature her in contorted positions while reciting abstract lines.
The ads, she is told, will be unique and fun and amazingly clever. sh0ck A series of very unique commercials. There was a real sort of intellectual spin on how they were going to produce these. sh0ck I’ll be the bread winner. I don’t care who wears the pants in the family, just so long as I wear the Calvin’s. sh0ck Calvin Klein jeans.
sh0ck However, some ads, which have double meanings, aren’t explained to Brooke. sh0ck I’ve got seven Calvin’s in my closet. And if they could talk, I’d be ruined. sh0ck If they had intended on the double entandra, they didn’t explain it to me. sh0ck You want to know what comes between me and my Calvin’s? Nothing.
It never occurred to me it could mean that I wasn’t wearing underwear sh0ck and then started hearing, “Oh, the commercials have been banned here and paparazzi and people screaming at my mother. How could you?” sh0ck Despite a significant amount of public disapproval, in December of 1980, Time reports that sales of Calvin Klein jeans have risen so far this year to 110 million, up from 65 million in 1979.
sh0ck The controversy backfired. The campaign was extremely successful sh0ck because evidently s*x sells. An idea which is proven again in Blue Lagoon. sh0ck I just keep on having all these strange thoughts. sh0ck What kind of thoughts? sh0ck Just thoughts, funny thoughts about you and me. sh0ck Blue Lagoon, shot before but released after the Calvin Klein ads, tells the story of two young cousins, Richard and Emiline, who get stranded on a tropical island.
And there they not only learn how to survive sh0ck and they have to learn it all, you know, they they learn everything, they learn about death and they grow up and go through this change where we realize sh0ck you’re the only thing I’ve got and I’m the only thing you’ve got. sh0ck In the film, Brooke acts beside Christopher Atkins, who she knows because he was also signed to Ford Models.
sh0ck Christopher was only in the agency for just a little while and then he got the movie. with Christopher. Brooke films intimate scenes under the direction of Randall Clyer. sh0ck As far as the love scenes go, I didn’t have to worry about it at all because the way it was shot, we had to dig a hole and Randall had to hold me back.
So, I was being held by Randall and we were playing this love scene. And once I said cut, I would just go back to me again. sh0ck As an adult, however, Brooke reflects that she wasn’t actually aware of the director’s true intentions. I didn’t know that that was what Randall had said to people, that they were going to really see this actress really be awakened and we’re going to catch it on film like the original reality show.
sh0ck I was evidently their master plan, which is ridiculous. I was not in tune with any of that. I didn’t come out of that movie with some understanding of my s*xuality, but that was what the studio was after. They wanted to witness something really happen. They wanted controversy. sh0ck And the controversy is successful.
Against a $4.5 million budget, Blue Lagoon makes 58.8 million at the domestic box office. And Brook’s fame explodes. sh0ck We got stuff. It’s like I did a movie and we got a car. All I knew was keep my mother alive, keep dancing, and get stuff. sh0ck That same year, Brooke books sh0ck 11 major magazine covers in 11 months.
Is your head spinning with all that’s happening to you? Yes, it is. So much is happening and I’m enjoying it a lot. sh0ck Blue Lagoon changed a lot of things in your life, didn’t it? The success gave me a lot of publicity. sh0ck To capitalize on Brook’s image, a doll is released. sh0ck Brooks, she’s a beautiful doll. sh0ck It’s the Brook Shields doll with long, beautiful hair you can style in so many ways. Make believe she’s a model.
You can pose her and pretend she’s a teenage star. There’s even a ring for you. sh0ck Thanks, Brooke. Brooke shield. She’s a beautiful sh0ck And from now on, this is pretty much how the industry will see her. sh0ck I’m glad I’ll be going back with you. sh0ck It’ll mean it’s all over. sh0ck Endless Love is another film about a teenage romance that becomes increasingly intense.
sh0ck It was a once- ina-lifetime thing, David. I know that. sh0ck And its director is truly horrible. Throughout the production, Franco Zepharelli taunts Brooke, twisted her toe during an intimate scene to try and elicit the facial expression he wants, and tells her she is never going to be considered a real actress.
Every time we’d finish a scene, I’d stick my tongue out or something to prove that it wasn’t my life. You’re sh0ck just jealous. sh0ck Given the way the rest of the industry treats her, Brooke embraces a friend who understands what she’s going through. sh0ck Hello, Brooke. I’m working on my album. I just wanted to say hello and I hope I get to see you soon.
sh0ck Brooke first met Michael Jackson at 13. And again, while the media attempts to s*xualize the details, sh0ck how big is Michael Jackson’s willie? sh0ck I think you should ask Michael Jackson. sh0ck According to Brooke, they have a platonic friendship built on shared experiences with fame and shared defense mechanisms.
sh0ck I wasn’t trying to get a music career. I wasn’t trying to get anything from him. And we just started hanging out. We both understood what it was like to be in the spotlight from a very very young age. sh0ck We had defense mechanisms that we had built up and I think once we met each other we realized that we didn’t really have to be wary of one another and that enabled us to build a friendship on a very different level.
We acted like little kids together. And I don’t think either one of us in our lives really had the environment to do that safely, sh0ck which gets reinforced again in the judgment of a lawsuit. Remember these terms in the contract with Gary Gross that the photos could be reused and republished for any purpose whatsoever while waving any right to inspect or approve the finished photograph or printed matter.
Well, back in 1980, Brooks sued Gross for the rights to the Playboy photos. After 3 years in the New York courts, however, the Court of Appeals rules that despite Brook’s requests, the consents given by her mother are still legally binding, meaning Gross retains ownership of the photos. with an opinion from Judge Simons reading as follows.
The infant plaintiff cannot maintain an action to recover damages for the republication of photos of plaintiff taken by defendant photographer when plaintiff was a professional model since plaintiff’s parent executed prior unrestricted consents for use of the photographs in favor of defendant which consents are valid under the statute and may not be disaffirmed by the infant.
The judgment is also made with costs to the defendant, a common ruling for losing parties in a dispute, meaning Brooke pays for Gary Gross’s legal bills. At the time, the media generally supports the decision. sh0ck She can’t have it both ways. She cannot appear in suggestive movies and commercials and preserve the image of an innocent teenager.
sh0ck So perhaps to change her image in the media, Brooke in the 80s starts taking a different type of advertisement. Then let’s face it, what goes in your body eventually shows up on the outside. The bottom line is stay away from drugs, but do it because you care about yourself. sh0ck Some of these PSAs, which try to discourage kids from smoking, sh0ck if there’s anything I hate, it’s washing my hair and then being with people who smoke.
sh0ck Pulled from the air as a result of industry lobbying. I was brought to DC to testify in front of Congress because of my smoking ads and they pulled all of them. The tobacco lobbyists were so powerful and said because of my early movies, I was an inappropriate role model based on my acting roles. It’s amazing.
sh0ck And at the same time, Brook’s film career is going through its own challenges. At 18, she tries to break her type cast by playing an ays who disguises herself as a man so that she can race across the Sahara. This however makes almost no money and Brooke receives a Razzi for worst supporting actor given to her in the male category because she wore a mustache as a disguise.
sh0ck Name’s Gordon Gordon. sh0ck After this, with fewer offers for roles that she wants in Hollywood, Brooke leaves. Now, what are you studying? What is your major? sh0ck I’m taking um French because I get to travel and I work a great deal in Europe and I work with people that speak French. I think it’s just helpful.
sh0ck In 83, Brooke begins study at Princeton. Her senior thesis titled The initiation from Innocence to Experience, the pre-adolescent adolescent journey in the films of Louis Mau explores her experience making Pretty Baby. And in 1987, she graduates come la for French literature. Now with a desire to make more challenging films and extra maturity to help her navigate the industry, Brooke returns to Hollywood.
sh0ck I would like to truly concentrate on making films and become more and more involved with more difficult and better roles. sh0ck However, this doesn’t happen. According to Brooke, she has no contacts with whom to reassociate. The connections my mom had were mostly with people of questionable integrity. And sh0ck when I got an education and I came out, people were mad sh0ck that I had an education cuz I wasn’t manipulatable in the same way.
And that was a sh0ck to me sh0ck cuz I thought, “Oh, they’re going to love this.” sh0ck And I was like, “Oh my god, I’m now getting crucified for that.” sh0ck Mhm. sh0ck Like what? sh0ck Now aged 22 without the quote appeal of her teen type cast. It was worse than starting from zero. It was like starting from -10.
While struggling to find jobs, a high-profile executive invites her to dinner to discuss a role. But after dinner, it becomes clear this is not his intention. sh0ck What happened after the dinner? You know, the I became a um a victim of assault and was never going to talk about it again sh0ck because if she had, sh0ck my career would have been over.
Is there a particular reason you’ve chosen not to name this man? sh0ck This is not about him. This is my story and this person doesn’t deserve the attention. I’m not interested in the pointing of the finger. I’m interested in how far I’ve come and all the work I’ve done. I shut it away. and through years of therapy and getting my career back on track on my own terms, not because of any incident that happened between me and somebody.
sh0ck And after everything, getting her career back isn’t easy. Brook’s next three films, The Diamond Trap, Cannonball Fever, and Brenda Star are all commercial failures, with the last making just $67,878 at the box office. The only thing keeping Brooke in the spotlight again is the media’s interest in her high-profile relationships.
The on andoff one with Michael Jackson. sh0ck Who do you date? sh0ck Well, right now it’s Brook Hills. sh0ck We try not to just be everywhere. It’s mostly at home. She’ll come over. I’ll go to her house cuz I don’t like going out in the public. sh0ck And also Brook’s relationship with Liam Niss. In Brook’s words, Nissan asked me to marry him but without a ring.
Then one night after he had to fly to LA to check on a basement flood in his home, I never heard from him again. He was there one minute and gone the next. He was taken. With few Hollywood prospects, Brooke leaves again, but this time for the theater. She joins a Broadway revival of Greece.
And I attribute a lot to theater because, you know, they took me in and then I had to work my ass off to learn how to do all that and align myself with the best dancers and the best singers. But I thought, God, you’ve been fighting it for your whole life because you think there’s no validity in your talent. sh0ck I don’t feel it.
I can’t let you know. sh0ck For her performances, Brooke wins the theater world award for outstanding Broadway or off Broadway debut. But more importantly, it’s during Greece that Brooke severs her professional ties with her mother. At this point, Brook’s career is managed under Brook Shields and Co.
Incorporated in Norwood, New Jersey. From a shared office, Brook’s mother manages her career. But one week after mom left the office on a Friday at about 6:00 p.m., Brooke has removalists empty this space, including her mom’s personal desk, and ship everything to a new office that Brooke is opening without her mother.
I needed to go cold turkey, close my eyes, and rip off the scab. I would send her money on a monthly basis, and as soon as I returned from tour, we should sit down to discuss how to divide all the various assets. I was sorry to do it to her, but because of her drinking, I could not trust her or her judgment. I did what I had to do.
With Brooke now in control of her projects and Greece proving that she has range as an actor, she takes guest roles in the Simpsons. sh0ck Cartoons have the power to make us laugh and to make us cry. Wouldn’t you agree, Crusty? sh0ck And also the second season of Friends, where she plays a deranged stalker. sh0ck Beautiful hands.
Oh, I could just eat them. But I won’t. sh0ck Otherwise, my watch would fall off. sh0ck And then I got my own television show based from that one episode. sh0ck Tony and I didn’t get too much sleep last night. sh0ck Suddenly Susan runs for four total seasons. It gets Brooke two Golden Globe nominations. sh0ck Brook Shields.
Suddenly Susan sh0ck helps her transition to romantic comedies. sh0ck Darthy wasted so much time looking for love in all the wrong places. and she has since acted in over 70 projects. sh0ck Now, does the will require that we sleep in the same bed or would say twin beds create a problem? sh0ck But while Brooke well and truly gets her sh0ck career back on track on my own terms, sh0ck life throws her a different challenge.
In 2003, Brooke and her husband Chris Henchi, the comedy writer behind movies like Land of the Lost and The Other Guys, become parents to their first daughter. in the years to come. However, sh0ck I suffered acutely from postpartum depression. Now, the big biggest tragedy of all of this was that I did not know that I had postpartum depression.
I did know that I wanted to die. I did know that I was incapable of holding or looking at or kissing or smelling or singing to my perfect tiny little baby. You know, in my mind, all I could think of was that I was a bad mother and and that my daughter and my husband and everybody around me would have just been better off without me.
And it was very clear and rational. It wasn’t dramatic. sh0ck At this time, Brooke recalls contemplating jumping out the window of my apartment. But sh0ck I just couldn’t fathom that I would have something called postpartum depression. given. Brooke had shared that she wanted to have children. sh0ck I definitely want to get married and have start off with one one child.
sh0ck This must have been an incredibly difficult thing to admit, but it resonates. I definitely identify with this, especially their shame. I had postpartum depression with my 2-year-old daughter. The feelings I was feeling after the birth of my child at the time didn’t feel right. And I was so ashamed and confused.
I didn’t want to tell anyone because I felt so alone and wrong. Her coming out publicly with her own experience made everything I felt okay and helped me understand and feel better to reach out for help. It may sound corny, but I’m eternally grateful to her for that. Count me in as a Brook Shields fan for life.
One person who is not a fan, however, is Tom Cruz. sh0ck The anti-depressant, all it does is mask the problem. There’s ways of vitamins and through exercise and various things. I’m not saying that isn’t real. I’m saying drugs aren’t the answer. These drugs are very dangerous. They’re mindaltering antiscychotic drugs.
And the thing that I’m saying about Brooke is that there’s misinformation. Okay? And she doesn’t understand the history of psychiatry. You see, here’s the problem. You don’t know the history of psychiatry. I do. It’s not the history of psychiatry, Brooke responds, but it is my history, personal and real. After Brooke writes this op-ed in the New York Times, Tom Cruz in person apologizes. Brooke accepts.
And in researching this story, this is one of the things I find most admirable about Brook Shields. Despite everything she’s been through, she isn’t half as bitter or resentful as others might be. You can go through this whole life and not be jaded and not be angry and still have an open heart. sh0ck In 2012, Terry Shields dies following a battle with dementia.
And despite all that Brooke could blame her for, all the situations she placed her daughter in, Brooke feels for her. sh0ck She rarely told me how she really felt about things. And I think that that was sort of sad and surprising to me to realize in a way how little I knew the the pain that my mother was feeling. sh0ck In an epilogue to her mother, Brooke writes, “You were ambitious and street smart and although also intensely loving and often well-intended, you were also an addict.
It was as if you were not only addicted to alcohol, but also addicted to me. I became the meaning in your life when it would have served you to find the meaning from within. And yet throughout the good and the bad, I would not have traded you for any other mother. You did the best you could, and so did I. Now, without her mother, sh0ck the place that I’ve gotten to now is a sense of truly my own control of my life.
sh0ck You had to fight for it. And I think because it started so early for me, I learned to fight early and my light kind of got a little dimmed because I got a bit beaten down. And I’m getting bits of it back and it feels so good. I feel like the Macy’s Day Parade balloons when they’re being like blown up and they’re just going to soar over their life and be like, “Ah, it’s okay. You did well.
” Just have that peace of mind to float and feel full and feel light. sh0ck If you enjoyed this, I think you’ll love the story of Marlon Brando or these auditions that launched careers. And for more stories of brilliant and flawed people and their work, subscribe.
