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How the Sexual Abuse Ricki Lake Suffered as a Child Affects Her Today

Season 5 Episode 310
Aired on 04/25/2015 | CC tv-14
In her 2012 memoir Never Say Never, actress and former talk show host Ricki Lake revealed that she was sexually abused as a child, a secret she didn't talk about until she was 21 years old. "It happened when I was about 6 or 7, and it went on for a long time," Ricki says. "It was someone who worked around my house—he was a handyman—and it happened when my mother was home. I would be downstairs in my basement, and she'd be upstairs."

Eventually, Ricki told her mother and the man was fired, but after that, she says it was never discussed again. When she got older, Ricki began to turn to food for comfort. "I think it's part of why I was overweight a lot of my teenage years and early adult life," she says. "I think I didn't want to be attractive to men. I think I liked food. I became a real emotional eater and still like food."

Today, Ricki is the proud mother of two sons, Milo and Owen, and she says that when they were the age she was when she was victimized, it struck a chord. "It was like, the idea my precious baby being taken advantage of like that, you know, it really it affected me," she says.

Watch as Ricki shares more about her sons and her plans for the future.

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