Ashley Graham is opening about some childhood trauma in her upcoming memoir, A New Model: What Confidence, Beauty and Power Really Look Like.
In the candid book, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue model recalls that she was only 10 when the 18-year-old son of her parents’ friends forced her to touch his aroused member while the two dried off after a swim, reports People.
She says she found the encounter frightening, and she immediately fled the room, but reveals the incident “left me with so many lingering questions.”
In the memoir, Graham also opens up about her father, whom she characterizes as being verbally abusive toward her.
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As Graham details, when she told her parents that an agent at Ford Models told her to “tighten up,” her father offered no sympathy, instead telling her that she probably should lose some weight. The conversation left her so shaken, she recalls, she found herself crying in the back seat of a cab after it occurred.
In addition, Graham reveals that while living in New York, her partying got a bit out of control, nearly causing her to be fired from her modelling agency when she missed a flight after a night of drinking. This, she says, became a turning point for her that led her to clean up her act.
“I hit bottom,” she writes, admitting that she didn’t completely stop drinking and partying, but no longer lets it get out of hand — and she says she hasn’t missed a flight since!
A New Model: What Confidence, Beauty and Power Really Look Like hits bookstores on May 9.
