Chrissy Metz recalls abuse details


Chrissy Metz has detailed the emotional and physical abuse she suffered at the hands of her stepfather.
The 'This Is Us' actress - who was eight years old when her father walked out on their family - admitted her mother, Denise, never saw how she was treated by the man named Trigger, but recalled how his taunts drove her to "sneak food" and binge through the night.
In an extract from her memoir, 'This Is Me', obtained by People magazine, she wrote: "My mother was always at work, so she didn't see how he treated me.
"My body seemed to offend him, but he couldn't help but stare, especially when I was eating. He joked about putting a lock on the refrigerator. We had lived with a lack of food for so long that when it was there, I felt like I had to eat it before it disappeared. Food was my only happiness.
"And so, I began to hide my eating. I'd get up in the middle of the night and eat. I'd sneak food to eat in the bathroom. Cookies, chips. Things I could eat as fast as possible to avoid detection.
"Things that would give me the brief bliss of numbness."
The 37-year-old actress recalled how the bullying then turned physical and claimed her stepfather would look for the slightest reason to lash out.
She wrote: "I don't remember why Trigger hit me the first time. He never punched my face. Just my body, the thing that offended him so much. He shoved me, slapped me, punched my arm. He would hit me if he thought I looked at him wrong. I remember being on the kitchen floor after he knocked me over, and I was begging to know what I did. He just shoved me hard with his foot."