‘She was in love with me.’ Inside Brooke Shields’ toxic relationship with her mum.

Brooke Shields' biographical documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields might be the most explosive visual memoir of our time. And the 57-year-old’s interviews to promote it have just as eye-opening, cathartic and – in some cases – downright disturbing.

When Shields appeared on her good friend and fellow actor Drew Barrymore’s talk show this week (side note: Barrymore also appears on Shields' doco), the women discussed how being child stars living with their mothers robbed them of just that – the chance to be children.

Watching the interview felt like we seeing two best friends bond, unload, and empathise over their shared trauma. At times it was uncomfortable to witness, but it also made us thank our lucky stars.

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The interview centred around Shields' mother, Teri, and Barrymore’s mum, Jaid, with the 48-year-old host asking if Shields' mum had ever dated one of her boyfriends – something Jaid had done to her daughter.

“No, ’cause she was in love with me. I was her main focus,” Shields replied, adding that this “love” for her daughter stopped the actor pursuing romantic adult relationships. 

“Both of us were going to be cut off from our sexuality; I was gonna stay a virgin, she was going to be just Teri Terrific.

“It was, ‘No one’s gonna get you... I’m gonna be there. I’m there first. You’re mine. I’m not gonna give you to somebody.'” 

But she did, many times, by putting her daughter forward for various film roles and photoshoots.

Teri was insistent on Brooke posing naked a Playboy-owned publication, Sugar & Spice, when she was just 10 years old. She also signed Shields on to portray a child prostitute at age 11 in Pretty Baby, followed by the sexual awakening film Blue Lagoon when she was 14.

Barrymore shared that her own mother’s behaviour struck a similar chord, to Brooke’s relationship with her own mum – though instead of sequestering her away, Jaid would encourage her daughter to have boyfriends, only for her to be intimate with them, said the actor.

“I think my mum might have been so enamoured with me that she actually wanted to be with the people I was with,” Barrymore shared, sitting nose-to-nose with Shields on the couch.

“I don’t get it, but I get it,” Shields responded. “It’s so layered and it’s so needy and it’s so sad and broken.”

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Neither woman had siblings and both entered the acting world young – and now, decades on, both Shields and Barrymore are mothers themselves, with two daughters each. It’s hard to fathom their girls having a childhood remotely close to their own. But with the #MeToo movement changing the landscape, the actors have gained the confidence to share their stories in their own time.

At first, Brooke said she wondered what “spectrum” of the movement she fell under, a typical feeling for victims of trauma. "I don't know where to interpret my experiences, because I was made to feel culpable, [but at] the same time, you victim-shame yourself," she told Barrymore during the show.

"But we were so young, and it was [deemed] so 'appropriate,' that I couldn't feel sorry – I didn't even know. I didn't know what it was.”

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At the rise of the #MeToo movement, Barrymore said she felt likes she didn’t have "a dog in that race". 

"I didn't feel like I could speak to it, because I experienced so many things that were so inappropriate at such a young age. And I'm so confused about, 'What was I accountable for? What did I put myself into? Where was I? Was I a part of things?'”

Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields touches on so much more than her relationship with her mum and her career. It delves into her first intimate relationship with Superman actor Dean Cain while they studied at Princeton, her marriage to tennis ace Andre Agassi, and her friendship with Michael Jackson.

Directed by Lana Wilson, who was responsible for Taylor Swift’s Americana, the two-part doco also shows Shields  opening up about the time she was raped by a Hollywood filmmaker.

"I didn't fight that much. I didn't. I just absolutely froze. I thought my one 'no' should have been enough. And I just thought, 'stay alive and get out.' And I just… 'voomp', just shut it out. And God knows I knew how to be disassociated from my body. I had practiced that."

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The model and actress also addressed her uphill battle to start a family with her husband, film director and screenwriter Chris Henchy. It took seven rounds of IVF for her to fall pregnant with her eldest daughter, Rowan, who's now 19.

"I was like, 'Something's wrong with me. I'm not meant to be a mother,'" she added.

Soon after welcoming her daughter in 2003, Shields began suffering from post-natal depression, and started a course of antidepressants. She admitted to experiencing urges to crash her car with her daughter inside on a California freeway. 

When the actor shared her struggles publicly, it irked die-hard Scientologist and one-time friend Tom Cruise – so much so, he condemned her for taking medication.

In a piece for The New York Times, Brooke hit back at the public bashing, and shone a light on the then-taboo topic of PND. 

"If any good can come of Mr Cruise's ridiculous rant, let's hope that it gives much-needed attention to a serious disease," she wrote. 

"Perhaps now is the time to call on doctors, particularly obstetricians and pediatricians, to screen for postpartum depression."

Feature image: Getty; Canva.