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Minka Kelly is revealing details of her "chaotic" and "unstable" childhood — raised by an exotic dancer — in a shocking, upcoming memoir.
The actress, now 42, shares stories of her mother, "Mo," taking her to strip clubs as a child, physical abuse and getting pregnant at 17. The memoir, "Tell Me Everything," is set to be published May 2.
"My childhood was colorful and chaotic, unstable and inconsistent, unpredictable and hard a lot of the times," Kelly told People magazine. "But the silver lining is that it made me a very adaptable person."
The actress grew up in poverty and often unsupervised as her mother worked as an exotic dancer to make ends meet. Mo would sometimes take the young child with her to the Crazy Girls strip club in Los Angeles, and they'd go grocery shopping at 2 a.m. afterward if Mo made enough money, according to People.
Minka Kelly grew up in an "unstable" and "chaotic" childhood, according to excerpts from her new memoir. (Getty Images)
In her new book, Kelly opens up about being physically abused. (Getty Images)
At the age of 17, Kelly performed in peep shows at an adult video store in New Mexico — to make ends meet while her mother wasn't around, the outlet reported.
"I started with the scariest part," Kelly told People of her decision to write about the peep show in first part of the memoir. "The part that I carried the most shame about, the part that I felt the most embarrassed of, the part that I hid my whole life, and the part that I've had people make me feel bad about. And I felt like that was just where I had to be the most brave."
Kelly also found out she was pregnant at the age of 17 with her high-school boyfriend, Rudy. The actress moved in with Rudy at the time but later chose to have an abortion.
Kelly recalled making the decision after her mom suggested they raise the baby together.
"Raise this baby together, how?" Kelly wrote, according to excerpts obtained by Page Six. "With what money? What home? What insurance? I couldn’t imagine bringing a baby into what my mother brought me into. Absolutely not."
"That was it. In that moment, I knew the right choice," she added. "Raising a child with my mother would only continue this family trauma, another cycle added to so many generations of pain. Hadn’t there been enough damage already?"
Kelly reveals why she chose to have an abortion at age 17 in "Tell Me Everything." (Getty Images)
The "Just Go With It" star detailed her toxic relationship with Rudy, explaining that he had coerced her into making a sex tape, which he later sold back to her for $50,000 after trying to sell it to the tabloids.
"I hardly even remembered making the tape," she wrote in the book. "I’d become such a master at leaving my body when things were uncomfortable."
TREVOR NOAH AND MINKA KELLY BREAK UP
Kelly says she was forced to pay an ex-boyfriend $50,000 for a coerced sex tape she had made with him. (Getty Images)
Kelly had moved to New Mexico with her mother to live with Mo's boyfriend, David. According to Kelly, he beat her after Mo told him the actress had been "borrowing" the car.
"He hit me with an open hand, then a fist, over and over," Kelly claimed. "He found a piece of cable wire on the floor and started thrashing me with it as I curled into a ball to protect what parts of myself I could. ... He yanked my hair, pulling me around the room by my ponytail. ... How long the beating continued, I don’t know. Welts were rising all over my skin when he finally exhausted his fury."
Kelly recalled him asking for a hug after the beating.
"'You a--hole,' I wanted to say," she writes. "'You f--king monster!' I wanted to cry and scream and tell them both to go f--k themselves, but that would only make it worse. I held it in."
Kelly and the cast of "Friday Night Lights." (Getty Images)
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Kelly starred as Lyla Garrity on "Friday Night Lights." (Getty Images)
Kelly returned to Los Angeles after finishing high school and studied to become a surgical technician while acting. She was also able to reconnect with her father, a former guitarist for Aerosmith.
Kelly also wrote about her toxic relationship with "Friday Night Lights" co-star Taylor Kitsch in the memoir. She landed the role of Lyla Garrity on the drama, which ran from 2006 to 2009.
While filming "Friday Night Lights," Kelly and co-star Taylor Kitsch began a relationship. (Getty Images)
Kelly details what she describes as a "toxic relationship" in her new memoir. (Getty Images)
"All the effort I might have invested in connecting consistently with the girls on the show went to Taylor. So when my relationship with Taylor became toxic, I had no one to turn to," she revealed.
"Life became very difficult both on and off set whenever we broke up. We were young and had very few tools to handle our emotions and personal grievances. On the days we had to work together and were broken up, he didn’t want to be in the hair and makeup trailer at the same time I was."
Kelly went on to have a number of high-profile relationships after her "Friday Night Lights" success, including John Mayer, Derek Jeter, Chris Evans and most recently Trevor Noah.
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