Missy Elliot reveals childhood of sexual abuse and poverty
Missy Elliot has opened up about her troubled childhood in a new TV special. She reveals she grew up so poor her father had to beat while she slept to keep the mice off her.
The Work It singer bravely spoke about the sexual abuse she endured from her teenage cousin in the Behind the Music documentary, which debuted in American on Wednesday.
The Virginia native admits she didn't have a lot growing up, but the poverty she and her family endured made her determined to be be a success.
She recalls, "I remember having mice in the house and my father taking some newspaper and beating me because mice was running on me while I was asleep."
Her mum Patricia Elliot adds, "We didn't have running water... We were going in a pot that sat by her bed, because we didn't have a bathroom."
Poverty was the only problem for the R&B sensation as she was molested by her 16-year-old cousin from the time she was eight.
She recalls: "Each day he wanted me to come to the house after school. It became sexual, which, for me at eight years old, I had no clue what that was, but I knew something was wrong.
"Being molested... it don't disappear. You remember it as if it was yesterday."
The rapper explains the abuse took place over a year but she never told anyone.
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