Melody Thomas Scott is best known for his role on The Young and the Restless as the wealthy and glamorous Nikki Newman. Scott’s life, however, was not always a fairytale. She was abused as a child and has been working to recover.
Scott was born on April 18, 1956, in Los Angeles. Always Young and Restless: My Life On and Off America’s #1 Daytime Drama, her 2020 memoir, revealed that she was born to a teenage mother who was still in high school. According to the actress, she has always felt a “disconnect” from her mother. “She didn’t want me,” Scott wrote. She didn’t care about me.”
Scott mostly lived with her grandparents, who were not particularly loving either. Her grandmother, she claimed, was just as “disconnected” from Scott and “dissatisfied with my existence” as her mother was.
Scott also described being “terrified” of her grandmother, who had unpredictable moods and was known to have “fits of hysterical rage.” Meanwhile, Scott’s grandfather avoided her, preferring to hide away in the attic. Scott was a child actor pushed into it by her grandmother, who had Hollywood dreams.
The Young and The Restless' Melody Thomas Scott opens up about being abused as a child https://t.co/7L9wgtlZzN
— Daily Mail Celebrity (@DailyMailCeleb) August 6, 2020
Her grandmother witnessed and did nothing when various men in the industry sexually abused her. “You see, my grandmother was so determined for me (and her) to succeed that anything I had to do to get ahead in business was fair game,” Scott explained.
“It didn’t even have to be a director or a producer. It didn’t matter if you were a grip or a boom operator. In her naiveté, she thought any man in show business could help us.”
Scott revealed that she suffers from generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and agoraphobia due to her traumatic childhood. According to People, the actor is healing “piece by piece” through therapy sessions and regular meditation.
The actor also believes that becoming a mother was essential to her healing process. She and her 37-year-old husband have three daughters. “It allowed me to raise a child in a way that I was not raised,” Scott said. “That became critical to me.” She went on to say,
The Young and the Restless’ Melody Thomas Scott Says Motherhood Helped Her Heal After Surviving Childhood Abuse https://t.co/ipAil9ORmp
— People (@people) August 5, 2020
“I had the opportunity to correct so much that went wrong when I was a child. I purposefully chose the polar opposite of the decisions made for me. I am so proud and happy to see them grow into beautiful women with their children.”
Melody Her grandmother has not been forgiven by Thomas Scott.
Scott shared she has not forgiven her late grandmother, especially for how she turned a blind eye to the sexual abuse that was going on. “I’m not ready for that … I don’t know if I ever will because when they are aware, they become complicit and that to me is evil,” she told Page Six. “You don’t allow that to happen to a small child.”
Still, Scott believes her grandmother was dealing with her mental health issues. She speculated that if her grandmother was diagnosed, she could have had a personality disorder or a mood disorder of some kind that contributed to her behavior.
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