I Thought it Was Normal': Ashley Judd Reveals Painful Childhood of Incest & Drugs in New Memoir

In her new memoirAll That's Bitter and Sweet, the beautiful and elegant Ashley Judd opens up about her painful childhood. Ashley, 42, is the daughter of country star Naomi Judd.

"My childhood was erratic, chaotic, unstable," she told People Magazine. "I was so the lost child, who just goes away and can be invisible while sitting in the middle of the room." Her childhood was full of drugs, neglect, and sexual abuse. From as early as seven years old, she experienced depression.

In 2006, Judd entered rehab to cure her depression. "I would have died without it," she said.

It's too late to go back and have a happy childhood, she said in an interview on the Today Show this morning, but "by the grace of God," things are better now:

The Daily Mail:

The Kiss The Girls star claims she was also exposed to chronic drug use which for a long time she was thought was 'normal'.

'I was taught to believe that our lifestyle was normal and never to question it or complain, even when I was left alone for hours, sometimes days at a time, or when I was passed without warning to yet another relative,' she shared.

'There was always marijuana inside the house.'

Meanwhile, her father Michael Ciminella, who is not Wynonna's father, spent his weekends taking hallucinogenics with friends', Ashley wrote.

Her parents divorced when Ashley was four-years-old and the actress admitted to suffering from depression from when she was as young as seven.

Ashley also claims she was a victim of sexual abuse and incest as a young girl.

The first of the many assaults she endured was when she was still living in Kentucky - where Naomi had moved the family after her divorce.

She says that an unnamed family member had attacked her during her childhood.

But on NBC's Today Show this morning, she said that she did not realise she was the victim of incest.

"That is what sexual predators do," Judd said. "They groom their victims and psychologically manipulate. They put that shame on me and now I put the shame back on those S.O.B.s."

As she was sharing her heartbreaking story on the Today Show, Judd came across as remarkably well-spoken and poised. She even managed to wink at the camera--showing, perhaps, just how far she's come emotionally from her turbulent childhood days.