Christina Applegate reflects on lasting impact of being molested in childhood

Christina Applegate is opening up about being sexually molested in her childhood.

Applegate has penned her memoir, You With the Sad Eyes, sharing the sexual assault, her turbulent relationships and more.

The actress mom Nancy Pridy was raising her alone after separating from her dad – record producer and executive Robert. At the age of 5, she was molested by a female babysitter.

"I knew every part of it was wrong. I felt sick and scared and sad," she writes in her book, per People. As a result, "I never fully felt comfortable being touched, and that’s true still. I’ve never felt comfortable with it my whole life, really, and all because of that girl forcing me to do something I barely understood but that I knew was shameful."

The actress’ journals, which she has kept since she was 13, proved helpful while writing her memoir.

"I've been wanting to write this down for my entire life," she told the outlet of her memoir. "The pen down on the table afterwards was like, 'Oh, I just wrote all this stuff, but now, I don't want anyone to read it.'"

Reading the most painful parts of her life wasn’t easys, but Applegate thinks she’s strong enough to handle it.

"To be honest, it's actually opened up so many wounds, and it's okay because I'm a strong girl, I'm going to get through it," she said. "But it wasn't like get to the other end and be like, 'Ah, now it's out.' It was the stuff that I'd never talked about. The stuff that was behind closed doors and that no one but the closest people in my life have ever known happened."