Leslie Jones laid bare her childhood's traumatising secrets

Leslie Jones is being even braver and more honest than her admirers already know.

The Emmy-nominated comedian and former cast member of Saturday Night Live, Leslie F*cking Jones, shares details of her difficult route to fame in her new biography, due out on September 19. Jones, 56, discusses why she's disclosing her innermost thoughts in this week's edition of People magazine in a lengthy interview.

“I knew I would write a book one day, but I'm kind of glad I did it now, so I can remember some of it,” says Jones. Still, the process of remembering in some cases, was “very emotional,” she says, “very hard.”

Annette Leslie Jones, an army brat born in Memphis, Tenn., to Sundra Diane Jones, a cable company employee, and Willie Jones Jr., a radio station electrician, faced her first adversity as a toddler.

“It was one of my babysitters who messed with me,” she writes of being sexually assaulted at age 2 or 3.

“Man I wish I could go back and fight that guy — that little girl couldn’t protect herself,” Jones writes, adding that she's skeptical if her parents, who've since died, ever knew what happened.

She goes on to say that when she looks back at photos, the abuse corresponds with when the light in her eyes seems to decrease.

The actress attributes much of her regaining and maintaining confidence to her father.

“My dad would always say to me, ‘I don't care what they tell you, you can do whatever you want to do as long as you work hard,’" recalls Jones.

“’They're going to tell you you're Black, they're going to tell you you're a female,’ he'd say, ‘but none of that matters.’”