Brooke Shields reveals how her children helped her overcome trauma

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Brooke Shields has mirrored on how her household helped her analyse her childhood trauma.

The 55-year-old actor spoke candidly about motherhood throughout a dialog with Oprah Winfrey for Oprah Daily’s “The Life You Want” class. Shields is the mom of two daughters – Rowan, 20, and Grier 17 – who she shares with husband Chris Henchy.

During her dialog with Winfrey, Shields mentioned the sophisticated relationship she had with her mom, Teri Shields, who additionally served as her supervisor all through her days as a baby star. She famous that when she was youthful, her mom usually purchased cheap cashmere sweaters, relatively than only one “good” sweater.

“I would say, ‘Why don’t you buy the one nice one and take really good care of it?’” she recalled telling her mom. “She said, ‘Yeah but you’ve got 10 now, or 11 of them or whatever. So you’re like OK, but they weren’t good quality.”

The Pretty Baby star famous that after witnessing her mom’s behaviour, she could be extraordinarily cautious with the costly gadgets she owned.

“Anytime I got something nice, I put it away,” she defined. “I don’t wear it. I don’t use it.”

Shields then added that one among her daughters finally had some considerations about her mom’s purchasing habits abd questioned her for not making use of the costly gadgets.

“[My daughter] was so incensed and she said, ‘I went into your closet and there was dust on everything.’ She’s like, ‘Those nice bags! You work hard for your money mom, use them. Because if you’re not gonna wear this stuff, I’m going to wear it,’” she defined.

According to Shields, her daughter hilariously identified that she’s sooner or later “going to die,” so it’s necessary to reap the benefits of the dear gadgets she has now. After Shields defined to her youngster that she’ll be passing down her stuff to her, she shared the deeper which means why she’s saved these things in her closet.

“I said, ‘You have to understand that I’m trying to understand my past, my attachment to things but then I don’t use them. I don’t enjoy them. What am I saving them for?’” the Endless Love star continued.

When Winfrey requested her why she saved these things, Shields stated that she had “no idea”. She additionally famous that when she lastly will get round to carrying the garments, she both “doesn’t fit” in them or they’re “out of fashion”. Shields additional defined that in line with her therapist, her have to maintain these things ties again to her relationship with her mom.

“She said [it’s] because you have such a fraught relationship with money and things from your mother, who was in the depression, who saved every little thing, in case. All of the in cases and stuff,” Shields continued. “So I inherited a lot of her stuff, and for my daughter, I said, ‘It’s my problem.’”

Shields famous that whereas she “loves” when her youngster wears her “vintage things,” equivalent to after they attend awards exhibits collectively, she feels unusual about her daughter carrying her luxurious gadgets.

“But when she goes into my closet and gets a Chanel sweater, I’m angry at myself that I haven’t enjoyed it,” she added.

During the dialog, the actor acknowledged that whereas her daughter known as her “the most down to earth famous person,” her youngster additionally reminded her that she’s nonetheless an A-lister. Shields defined that she had blended emotions about her youngster saying that, given the type of mom she’s tried to be.

“I really don’t know how to take that because I spent their entire lives not being Brooke Shields, just being their mom,” she stated. “And then in this world that they’re in, this fame obsessed world, she sees it but she doesn’t. She wants me to enjoy it more.”

She emphasised how the dialog with one among her daughters was “an interesting moment,” for the reason that celeb stated that she “doesn’t live in her bigness”.

This isn’t the primary time that Shields has mirrored on her relationship with her mom. During an interview with Drew Barrymore final yr, she stated that her mom had little interest in relationship males as a result of she was too busy managing her daughter’s profession.

“I was her main focus. Both of us were cut off from our sexuality,” she defined. “I was going to stay a virgin. She was going to be just Terri terrific and being there.”

In her Hulu documentary, Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, the actor opened up concerning the exploitation and sexualisation she skilled as a baby star – together with how her mom allowed her to pose nude for Playboy when she was simply 10 years previous, and play a baby prostitute within the 1978 movie, Pretty Baby.

In an interview with The Sunday Times in March 2023, Shields recalled her daughters’ reactions after they discovered their mom had performed a baby prostitute at such a younger age. “It’s child pornography!” her 19-year-old daughter stated within the documentary. “Would you have let us [do that] at the age of 11?” she requested, to which Shields responded: “No.”

Shields then acknowledged how troublesome it was for her to have this dialog with her daughters, and how she couldn’t give them a cause why their grandmother let her do the initiatives. “I mean, I could say, ‘Oh, it was the time back then,’ or ‘Oh, it was art,’” Shields stated. “But I don’t know why she thought it was all right. I don’t know.”