"This is Us" star Chrissy Metz says she was abused by her stepfather
"This is Us" star Chrissy Metz is opening up about her past. The actress reveals in her new book "This is Me" that she struggled with weight and bullying her whole life. She also says that her stepfather verbally and physically abused her.
In an excerpt published by People, Metz said that her stepdad taunted her for her weight.
"My body seemed to offend him, but he couldn't help but stare, especially when I was eating," she wrote. "He joked about putting a lock on the refrigerator. We had lived with a lack of food for so long that when it was there, I felt like I had to eat it before it disappeared. Food was my only happiness."
Metz also wrote that she got up in the middle of the night to sneak food out of the kitchen. She called the snacks she ate "things that would give me the brief bliss of numbness."
The actress said that at some point, her stepfather started hitting her -- but not on the face.
"Just my body, the thing that offended him so much," she write. "He shoved me, slapped me, punched my arm. He would hit me if he thought I looked at him wrong. I remember being on the kitchen floor after he knocked me over, and I was begging to know what I did. He just shoved me hard with his foot." She also said that her stepdad, Trigger, made her do humiliating weigh-ins.
"'Good God almighty!' he yelled every single time," she wrote. "The number then was about 140 or 130. Most of my friends weighed about ninety pounds. 'Why are you getting fatter?' he demanded. I look at pictures of me from that time, and I would be so fine with being that size now. But I thought I was gigantic."
Surprisingly, Metz said that she loved her stepfather for spending time with her. She also said that she and her stepdad "have a relationship" and that she cares for him and loves him.
Metz, who also wrote that the boy who gave her her first kiss would not admit to it in public, says her role as Kate on "This is Us" changed her life, and is happy that she is inspiring people.