John Stamos has revealed that he was sexually abused by an old babysitter when he was “10 or 11”.
According to tragic new reports, the celebrated actor summoned memories of the assaults as he was penning his new memoir If You Would Have Told Me, due for release next week, October 24.
Stamos spoke to PEOPLE in a candid new interview wherein he discussed the fact that he had been assaulted by a babysitter as a child, admitting that he had pushed the memory back to the dark parts of his mind.
The Full House star said that the abuse was “always in the back” of his head and that he hadn’t told anyone about it.
Yet he spent more time thinking about it while in the process of writing his upcoming memoir, If You Would Have Told Me, and decided to make some room for the painful recollection within the pages of the book.
That said, the 60-year-old insisted that he “didn’t want the book to be about it” and so had only written about his memories of being abused for “a page or something”.
LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 12: John Stamos is seen on June 12, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Hollywood To You/Star Max/GC Images)
Stamos told PEOPLE: “I remembered it slightly. It has always been there, but I packed it away as people do, right?”
He went on: “It was like you’re playing dead so they’ll stop. But it wasn’t totally aggressive. I don’t know. It was not good.
“I was probably like 10 or 11 [at the time]. I shouldn’t have had to deal with those feelings.”
Promotional portrait of the cast of the television series, ‘Full House,’ L-R: Ashley or Mary Kate Olsen, Bob Saget, David Coulier, Candace Cameron, John Stamos, and Jodie Sweetin, circa 1987. (Photo by Lorimar Television/Fotos International/Getty Images)
Stamos first burst onto the acting scene via General Hospital, but has since become a household name after going on to appear in successful shows such as Full House and ER.
His upcoming memoir is described on Amazon as:
“A universal story about friendship, love, loss, and the courage to embrace love once more, John Stamos’s memoir is filled with some of the most memorable names in Hollywood, both old and new. Funny, deeply poignant, and brutally honest, If You Would Have Told Me is a portrait of a boy who went from believing in Disney magic to a man who learns that we have to create our own magical moments in life.“
If You Would Have Told Me is set for release on October 24.
I don’t know about you, but I’m proud of John Stamos for speaking out about such a deeply troubling issue.