Although Hollywood seems like a wonderful place, one actress revealed that her upbringing in the industry was traumatic.
Nickelodeon star Jennette McCurdy has revealed the disturbing experiences she dealt with in her family as she grew older, discussing the details of her upbringing in her best-selling memoir, “I’m Glad My Mom Died,” and during an interview on “The Louis Theroux Podcast.”
The actress spoke about how her mother showered her until she was 18 years old and would “be in the shower with me shampooing and conditioning my hair, washing my body,” Fox News reported.
“She would give me breast and vaginal exams in the shower and said that she was checking for lumps, just checking for cancer,” McCurdy recalled.
Although her mother wore clothes, McCurdy noted that the showering process was “uncomfortable” for her.
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“I knew it felt violating for me. And I knew I didn’t want it, but the one time I had attempted to even say, ‘Hey, do you think I could shower myself?’ She flew into hysterics, and it just became clear to me, ‘Oh, I can’t ever try to shower myself again,’” she said.
The only time McCurdy was free to shower alone was when her mother, Debbie, was being treated for cancer and the actress went on tour.
McCurdy, who is also an author, rose to prominence in Hollywood while starring in the Nickelodeon series “iCarly,” and “Sam & Cat.”
While it’s unknown why Debbie would insist on showering her daughter, McCurdy speculates it has something to do with her mother fearing her daughter growing up.
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“I think it’s the fear of me growing up. It’s body monitoring,” the actress said.
McCurdy explained how close she became with her mother, especially around the time she began developing breasts.
“It had always been really clear to me that my mom did not want me to grow up, not just for acting, but it also felt like her worth was tied up in me being young,” she recalled. “With me being young, she had something to do. She felt good. Me growing up kind of felt like her loss of purpose.”
McCurdy recalled asking her mother whether she could stop her physical development when she was 11 years old. Her mother eventually introduced her to a calorie restriction, which led to an eating disorder for McCurdy as well as anorexia and bulimia, as reported by the entertainment magazine, People.
“She weighed me daily, and she measured my thighs with a measuring tape,” the actress said, according to Fox. “She taught me what diuretics were, and we would read calorie books together and constantly were just in this, kind of as partners in crime, and it felt amazing.”
After developing anorexia and bulimia, McCurdy was forced to repeatedly visit the dentist because “the acidity in your stomach fluids just wears down your enamel and basically rots your teeth.”
“I actually lost a tooth at one point in an airplane bathroom, and it smells, and it’s awful, and it is a real low point for me,” she added.
As of today, however, McCurdy says her relationship with food is far better than it was before.
“I consider myself fully recovered,” she said.
Through her memoir, McCurdy has revealed that she has come to terms with her mother’s death by going through two years of extreme Dialectical Behavior Therapy, People reported.
