Actress Brooke Shields opened up about her complicated relationship with her late mother during her recent appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, where she said her mother, Teri Shields “cut off” her sexuality, because “she was in love with me.”
“My mom went and dated my boyfriends. Did you ever have that weird situation with your mom?” Barrymore asked Shields, to which the Blue Lagoon star responded by saying, “No, because she was in love with me.”
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Shields went on to explain that her mother, who acted as her manager, was trying to protect her, and was so “in love” with her that she “cut off” her sexuality, Page Six reported.
“I was her main focus, and both of us were going to be cut off from our sexuality,” she said. “I was going to stay a virgin, she was going to be just Teri terrific, and being there.”
Barrymore said that her mother “was so enamored with me that she wanted to be with the people I was with,” to which Shields said, “I get it, it’s so needy and weird.”
Shields also explained that her mom appeared in every one of her interviews when she was a child star because she wanted to protect her.
“‘No one’s going to get you. I’m going to be there. I’m there first. You’re mine. I’m not going to give you to somebody,’” Shields said of what mother mother used to convey.
“Under the guise of protection, but it was more ownership and fear, I think,” the Pretty Baby star said.
Shields also noted that at the time, she didn’t mind her mother behaving in this manner, because her success ended up getting them “stuff” she had never had before in her life.
“I did a movie and we got a car. All I knew was keep my mother alive, keep dancing and get stuff,” the actress recalled. “But to emerge from it not angry or jaded — it’s something in your character. It’s in my character.”
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