Teri Hatcher has told how she was sexually abused as a child. The 'Desperate Housewives' star was molested by an uncle from the age of five - and admits she contemplated suicide after the horrific attacks.

The 41-year-old told Vanity Fair magazine: "I remember him making me touch him and feeling like I don't want to do this at all. I was completely horrified.

"I haven't tried to kill myself, but I've certainly thought about it."

She added: "The most horrible thing, that has stuck with me all my life, is that he was doing things to me and he said, 'Doesn't that feel good?' I said, 'No, it doesn't'. He said, 'Well, some day you'll know what I'm talking about'."

The abuse ended three years later after Teri "went ballistic" when her mum invited her uncle, Richard Hayes Stone, over for dinner. Teri eventually helped convict Stone in 2002 after a teenager he had abused killed herself. After hearing the case could be thrown out of court, the actress reported her own ordeal.

She said: "I was just blown away by this young girl's pain. I thought, boy, that's really close to being me.

"Any day of the week I could feel that sort of pain."

Stone admitted child abuse and was jailed for 12 years.



Teri Hatcher at the Grammy Awards in February 2006.

WOW!  So sad for that little girl that felt that killing herself was the only way out.

Something is wrong wiht our system with a guy dealing pot gets years and a child molester gets 12!

They consider drugs as affecting more people at once.  Last night heard on the news about a guy that had molested four young boys and was given NO jail time at all. Sickening.

It always shocks and surprises me how widespread child sexual abuse is.  I guess it shouldn’t…but it just goes to show how far-reaching the effects of being molested are.  It’s about time perverts like this stopped being protected by family members, or the courts for having an “illness.”  Cancer is an illness.  Being a child molester is just evil.

wow. too sad for words.
This probably still impacts Terri in her relationships.

I almost couldn’t believe that she actually told that to Vanity Fair. It’s quite a brave thing to do.

something so personally crushing, mortifying and appalling should not be shared with millions of people to sell copies of a magazine. sometimes i wonder what is going on in hollywood. i feel sorry 4 her.

EXACTLY JERAMIE, about not sharing with
the public….....Im sorry for her if this did happen….but come’on ...She seems like this whiney old bag sometimes…...Don’t get me wrong I feel bad for her past…..But pulls the feel sorry for me card too much.

Jemarie maybe (AND I DON"T LIKE HER) but maybe she was doing it to help out girls….?

yeah that is bull shit jemarie…maybe she did this so others would know it is ok and not to feel ashamed..she is just showing it can happen to anyone and it is ok. i think she is trying to help out people who may be going through this. kind of a shallow thing for you to say.

well there are significantly better ways she could do it. maybe she is, an good on her if she follows it through with charity work or ways of raising awareness. but im pretty sure the HUGE amount VF pays for their interviews went straight into her pocket.

so what…all the stars, muscians, etc. all do the same freakin thing..at least her coming out and letting people know what happend might just change one childs or adults life.

How incredibly sad.  I think it is very brave of her to come out with that…and I agree sonicboom she may very well change a child’s life by doing so.

Jemarie, whatever venue Teri chose to ‘come out’ with her sexual abuse as a child should not be an issue. Why is that what you chose to focuse on? If she wants to share a tragedy in her life with the public, for whatever reason, there should be no problem with that. Oprah talks about her sexual abuse all of the time and by her talking about she has helped others talk about it which can be part of the healing process.

If this helps Teri deal w/ the pain, embarassment, shame etc., then she has every right.

yes ur def rite in that respect. but call me a cynic or whatever u like, i dont think her motive 4 sharing will have been solely 4 helping. if it was she would have chosen a far better way.

ok so what other way because the only other way i can think of is tv or radio. i think it is fine what she did. it wouldnt matter how she came out about this you would have said the same thing. she has every right to tell her story and if she gets money for it, who cares, in the end she may have helped someone else.

she just wants some attention!!! It is sad and I feel sorry for her but i dont see why she had to tell her story?If she wanted to help someone thats going through the same thing she could have done it w/o bringing attention to herself.

The mystery of Teri’s terrible taste and neediness, solved.

She wasn’t doing it to help younger girls, what younger girls read Vanity Fair? Its publicity, just like all her other stunts lately.
If she wanted to help others, she would be helping out charities ar something similiar to help support people who are going through the same ordeal
But I am sorry it happened to her and all,

OH MY GOD! how did i never hear this before?! this is REAL news. damn, how horrible. glad she stepped up and told what he’d done to her. so sad that girl killed her, that guys sucks!

i don’t know or care whether she did it to help others or for the money, but i just think it’s so sad that that poor girl felt the need to die because no one stoppped to get him help (as in put him in a mental hospital) for his obvious psychological illness before he got out of control and felt the need to molest all these young girls.

No matter what her motives were, her story could help someone…POINT BLANK!You guys can be so negative and judgemental sometimes!Are you guys perfect?!I think not.

Meeeow you took the words out of my mouth.

That’s terrible.  Is that why she looks like Michael Jackson now?

sorry - she looks nice in the pic above…but lately - she’s looked like MJ.

Love that dress on her. She can pull that off well.

Real coincidence that she has a book coming out soon that, by the way, makes no mention of this. Still, I hope enternity is very unkind to Uncle Richie.

I’m not the biggest fan of Teri Hatcher, but when I got wind of this news, my heart did go out to her. It’s a very brave thing to tell someone about that kind of thing, much less a magazine that you know will be read by millions of people. Kudos to her. There are countless people that have been sexually abused that have come out about it…imagine those that haven’t and feel ashamed to tell anybody. My guess is that there are probably way more that try to keep it all in and I say if Teri Hatcher revealing the truth about her past helps some of those people feel that they can talk about it as well, then I can’t find any fault with how she chooses to tell her story.

child molesters need to die…the end….