Ashley Judd Memoir Reveals Sex Abuse

Childhood was filled with drugs, neglect, she writes
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 5, 2011 8:51 AM CDT
Ashley Judd's Sex Abuse Revealed in New Memoir
Ashley Judd waits for her husband Mario Franchitti after qualifying at the Indy 300 auto race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla., Friday, Oct. 1, 2010.   (AP Photo/Terry Renna)

Ashley Judd's memoir details a family faced with troubles ranging "from depression, suicide, alcoholism, and compulsive gambling to incest and suspected murder," she writes. Radar and MSNBC received advance copies of All That Is Bitter & Sweet, out today. Judd writes that "there was always marijuana inside the house" and that her father "was prone to taking hallucinogenics," and adds that when her mother divorced and got a new boyfriend, that man was an "abusive full-blown heroin addict with a criminal record."

The most tragic incident Radar recounts is one in which Judd describes sexual abuse she suffered: "An old man everyone knew beckoned me into a dark, empty corner of the business and offered me a quarter for the pinball machine at the pizza place if I'd sit on his lap. He opened his arms, I climbed up, and I was shocked when he suddenly cinched his arms around me, squeezing me and smothering my mouth with his, jabbing his tongue deep into my mouth." Click for more from Judd, or here for her jab at Sarah Palin. (More Ashley Judd stories.)

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