Sally Field Details Sexual Abuse By Stepfather Jock Mahoney In New Memoir: ‘I Felt Helpless’

Hollywood icon Sally Field‘s higly-anticipated memoir, In Pieces, doesn’t offcially hit bookshelves until next week but the “incredibly raw, intimate, and personal” topics the 71-year-old actress touches on in her book are already making headlines. 

During a new interview with The New York Times to discuss her autobiography, Sally candidly opened up about her childhood and revealed she was sexually abused by her famous stepfather, Jock Mahoney, as a teenager. 

Sally recalled that she would often be called alone into Jock’s bedroom when she was just 14 years old. “I knew. I felt both a child, helpless, and not a child. Powerful. This was power. And I owned it. But I wanted to be a child — and yet,” the Oscar winner wrote in her book, according to the NYT. 

In her autobiography, Sally also opened up about her famed Hollywood romance with Burt Reynolds, who sadly passed away on Sept. 6 at age 82. While speaking to the NYT, the mom-of-three said she was “flooded with feelings and nostalgia” while chronicling her 1977 to 1982 relationship with Burt. 

“[Our romance was] confusing and complicated, and not without loving and caring, but really complicated and hurtful to me,” Sally wrote of the late actor. Following Burt’s death, the Mrs. Doubtfire actress also revealed that she’s ultimtely glad that her Smokey and the Bandit co-star never got to read her book. 

“This would hurt him. I felt glad that he wasn’t going to read it, he wasn’t going to be asked about it, and he wasn’t going to have to defend himself or lash out, which he probably would have. I did not want to hurt him any further,” she shared. 

Sally’s memoir, In Pieces, will be available for purchase wherever books are sold on Tuesday, Sept. 18.