Jennette McCurdy reveals the shocking moment that was ‘hardest part to write about’ in her memoir
‘It took a long time for me to even talk about it in therapy, let alone put on a page and how to put it on a page, and what to say about it’
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Your support makes all the difference.Jennette McCurdy has shared which moment of her life was the hardest for her to write about in her recent memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died.
In the book, published last month, the former child actor wrote about the emotional and physical abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother Debra since she was a young girl.
While the book detailed shocking accounts of abuse, exploitation, anorexia, co-star feuds, and more, McCurdy – who starred as Sam opposite Miranda Cosgrove in Nickelodeon’s iCarly – revealed which portion was the most emotionally difficult to write.
On the latest episode of the Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard podcast, host Dax Shepard singled out the “weird” part of the memoir in which McCurdy described her mother’s need to be with her while she showered.
“That was the hardest part to write about,” she responded. “I would kind of write the premise of each vignette, and I couldn’t write that one.”
She continued: “That one, I wrote, I think, a couple days before the final draft was due for the publisher. I was just so resistant to it.
“It took a long time for me to even talk about it in therapy, let alone put on a page and how to put it on a page, and what to say about it. I just felt overwhelmed.”
Elsewhere on the podcast, she disclosed that her mother would threaten to put her and her siblings up for adoption if they “did something that she didn’t like”.
During an earlier appearance on Red Table Talk, McCurdy spoke about the times her mother – who died of breast cancer in 2013 – would allegedly give her breast and vaginal exams in the shower, as well as ask her to shower with her older brother Scott “because she’s got too much to do”.
McCurdy read aloud the passage: “Whether or not Scott’s there with me, Mom gives me a breast and ‘front butt’ exam, which is what she calls my private parts.”
McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died, which she dedicated to her three brothers, is out now.
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