'This Is Us' Star Describes Awful Childhood Abuse

The hit NBC show This Is Us is about the drama a family goes through, but one actress on the series is no stranger to family drama and she's opened up about her own. 

Chrissy Metz, who plays "Kate Pearson" on the show, has written a book called This Is Me: Loving the Person You Are Today, and in it, she describes the abuse she went through as a child. She writes about her cruel stepfather and how he led to the weight and body image issues she struggles with today. 

In the book, Chrissy explains that when her father left her family, she and her mom were left in poverty, not knowing when they would eat next, which caused Metz to develop an unhealthy relationship with food. 

Then, when her mother remarried a man named Trigger, his insults about her figure made her problem worse. She wrote:

"My body seemed to offend him, but he couldn't help but stare, especially when I was eating. He joked about putting a lock on the refrigerator. We had lived with a lack of food for so long that when it was there, I felt like I had to eat it before it disappeared. Food was my only happiness."

The worst of Trigger's verbal abuse seemed to come when Chrissy would weigh herself:

"He sat in a chair next to the scale as I got on. ‘Good God almighty!' he yelled every single time. The number then was about 140 or 130. Most of my friends weighed about 90 pounds. ‘Why are you getting fatter?' he demanded. I look at pictures of me from that time, and I would be so fine with being that size now. But I thought I was gigantic. By then the beating had escalated. One time he hit me, and I looked right in his face. If I had a gun, I thought, I would shoot you."

Chrissy describes more of Trigger's physical abuse as well, saying:

"I don't remember why Trigger hit me the first time. He never punched my face. Just my body, the thing that offended him so much. He shoved me, slapped me, punched my arm. He would hit me if he thought I looked at him wrong. I remember being on the kitchen floor after he knocked me over, and I was begging to know what I did. He just shoved me hard with his foot."

E! News caught up with Trigger, whose real name is Crayton Hodge, and he denied everything Chrissy wrote about him, stating:

"I don't remember things the way she does. I'll disagree with everything in there, except the part that I love her. I still love her as much as I ever have. I've taken care of her like she's one of mine and I would continue to do so in the future if need be."

Trigger claims he was very supportive of Metz adding, "She used to complain about her weight, and I said, 'Chrissy, use what you have,' well, apparently she did! And she has a beautiful face, she’s gorgeous."

Nonetheless, Trigger says he reached out and apologized for anything he did and he now apparently has a relationship with Metz.

You can read more when This Is Me hits shelves on Tuesday. 

Photo Credit: Getty