10 Saddening Details Surrounding Brooke Shields, Who Was Exploited By Her Parents As A Child

6 /10 International Furor

The movie’s R-rating in the United States immediately triggered controversy. Looking back, some would say that the whole quarrel partly was because of Brooke’s unusually excellent portrayal of the character.

She was pretty tall for a girl her age back then at 5’4″ and blessed with flawless skin, silken hair, black lashes, and deep blue eyes.

Even at 12 years of age, Brooke’s appearances in the movie screamed s*xuality. She was not a child model but already a movie star to bring life to the prostitute character.

5 /10 Stage Mother

Anger toward the director was light in comparison to the protests against Teri. In a statement, she admitted that the press had referred to her as a stage mother, a frustrated celebrity who could only get by through Brooke, and a film-wrecking woman.

In her defense, she said her intention was only to protect her daughter from harmful publications.

Considering how young the daughter was, it only made sense for a mother to do that. However, it was also the mother who brought the daughter to the situation in the first place.

4 /10 Se*x Symbol

At the same time, Teri said she didn’t mind if people called her daughter a s*x symbol. She believed there was nothing wrong with the movie; it was pure fiction anyway.

During the filming of one particular scene where Violet had to pose naked for a photographer, the director closed the set except for himself and the cinematographer.

Teri was not there to protect Brooke, but then she believed the result would be tasteful. Adding to the debacle was the director’s statement claiming that Brooke was a “natural” role.

3 /10 Only A Role

Brooke maintains her positive view over the role regardless of what happened during the filming and the subsequent uproar. She once said that Violet was only a role and would not grow up as a prostitute.

Furthermore, the actor explained it would be dumb to worry if the fictional role became any meaningful part of her private non-fictional characteristic.

The director himself seems astonished that Brooke came out just fine, instead of becoming a robot or monster, growing up with the controversial role and the subsequent issue,

2 /10 There Was A Little Girl

Brooke Shields released a memoir, “There Was A Little Girl,” in 2014, detailing the nature of her relationship with her mother and manager.

After her parents divorced when she was only five months old, Brooke lived with Teri in Manhattan. Brooke described her mother as a glamorous alcoholic woman who drank and cursed like a construction worker.

Her mother would sometimes take her out of bed while drunk to have a conversation in the middle of the night.

When Brooke was in her 20s, Teri often interrupted journalists during the interview, claiming her daughter needed to go tinkles.

1 /10 Protective Mother

In some cases, the protectiveness was contradictory. For example, she let her young daughter play in a movie that, without a doubt, exploited her s*xuality at a tender age.

Still, when the Brooke Shields doll came out of production, the mother demanded the torso be modified in such a way to represent the daughter’s flatter chest.

Teri took control of her daughter’s career mainly because she didn’t want anybody else to do it. After the mother’s work as her manager ended, the two remained close until Teri died in 2012.