Brooke Shields Gets Emotional About Overcoming Her Past Struggles (Exclusive)

Brooke Shields faced the cameras on the red carpet at the premiere of her docuseries “Pretty Baby,” in which she shares her dark secrets from her painful past with the world.

“Extra” spoke with Brooke, who opened up about how she felt about being so vulnerable. She said, “It’s just very emotional and I’m really trying to stay present, as they say.”

Shields was surrounded by her husband Chris Henchy, daughter Grier, and some of her famous friends.

Brooke was “most proud” of her work. She said, “I’ve always worked hard at being the most myself and a good person. I’ve fought for that for 57 years… I was never going to let myself not forge ahead.”

Getting emotional, Shields stressed, “To own your talent is a very emotional thing for me, and to see it all and not compartmentalize it but actually say, ‘Wait a minute, you undermine yourself because the world tries to knock you down, and I’m talented,’ it was a revelation. I’ve always either been nice or sweet or pretty or famous or infamous or all the other things, and I fought very hard for my creativity and I’m proud of it.”

From making the sexually explicit “Blue Lagoon” at 14 to the controversial Calvin Klein commercials she starred in as a teen, Brooke is getting candid about the ugly truth behind her rise to fame, including the bombshell revelation that she was sexually assaulted by a Hollywood exec more than 30 years ago.

She noted, “It took me a long time to process. We all have to deal with reality in our own way and in our own time. Not the way other people tell us to deal with anything… I felt it would be inauthentic to not include a big piece of my life.”

Brooke is now a mother of two teenage girls, who she has spoken to about the dangers of show business and her complicated relationship with her mom Teri.

She said, “The first time in my life when that open discussion was happening, I chose my girls rather than defending my mother and it was in that moment I thought, ‘Isn’t this interesting?’ We’re very tied, but no, I made the decision no longer to just take care of myself and take care of my girls, and it felt very much like a rite of passage.”