The 'Dukes of Hazzard' actress reveals that she struggled to cope with the trauma from the sexual assault she suffered at the hands of a family friend when she was young.

• Jan 23, 2020

AceShowbiz - Jessica Simpson has opened up on her life threatening battle with alcohol and drugs in her new memoir, "Open Book".

The singer admits she self-medicated with alcohol and stimulants following a period of trauma, which began with her being sexually abused as a young girl. However, the dependency later prompted her doctor to tell her her life was in danger.

"I was killing myself with all the drinking and pills," she writes in new excerpts of the publication, obtained by People.

"Giving up the alcohol was easy," the star, who has been sober since November 2017, confesses. "I was mad at that bottle. At how it allowed me to stay complacent and numb."

But it was the therapy that the star struggled with, writing, "With work, I allowed myself to feel the traumas I'd been through."

The abuse began when she was six years old, "when I shared a bed with the daughter of a family friend," she recalls. "It would start with tickling my back and then go into things that were extremely uncomfortable."

The "With You" star admits she "wanted to tell my parents," but feared she'd be blamed, writing, "I was the victim but somehow I felt in the wrong."

When she was 12 years old, she told her parents, Tina and Joe, while they were on a car trip. Jessica says her mother slapped her father's arm and yelled at him, "I told you something was happening."

"Dad kept his eye on the road and said nothing," Simpson adds. "We never stayed at my parents' friends house again but we also didn't talk about what I had said."

Simpson goes on to recall finally hitting rock bottom after a Halloween party in 2017, admitting, "When I finally said I needed help, it was like I was that little girl that found her calling again in life."