The Tragic Real-Life Story Of Teri Hatcher

Teri Hatcher has had a long-running career that's lasted for decades, with hits shows along the way like Lois & Clark and Desperate Housewives. Despite her successes, though, she's had more than her fair share of struggles. This is her tragic real-life story. In a 2006 interview with Vanity Fair, Hatcher opened up about something that she'd been trying to hide her whole life. When she was growing up, she and her parents lived in Sunnyvale, California, close to her aunt and her aunt's husband, Richard Hayes Stone. When Hatcher was just five years old, Stone began abusing her. As the actress recalled, "These are haunting things I've remembered all my life. I feel such shame, because it felt like I was special...but at the same time you know it's wrong." Over the next several years, the torment continued, and her parents never knew. Hatcher revealed, "The last time I saw him, I think I was eight or nine, my mother invited them over to the house for dinner, and I went ballistic. My mom thought that was pretty out of left field, but that was when her instincts kicked in." Hatcher's mother removed her from the situation, but she never asked her daughter what had happened. As the actress told Vanity Fair, "Nobody wanted to talk about it. All I did was blame myself. It was something I tried to bury completely. It's why I don't associate with my mother's side of the family; in my mind, I try to pretend they don't exist." Hatcher eventually learned that she wasn't Stone's only victim. When he was charged with molestation in a separate incident, she testified against him, which helped lead to him pleading guilty and being sentenced to 14 years behind bars. Following Stone's sentencing, Hatcher was able to push some long-standing doubts aside. As she told Vanity Fair, "He pleaded guilty, and even though it wasn't to my crime, it was because of my crime, and that made me feel really validated. It made me feel that I wasn't crazy. That's a victim thing; you ask yourself, 'Am I just crazy? Did I make all this up?' Somehow it might be easier to accept that you're crazy and you made it all up than to admit that it happened, and how awful it was, and how much pain you're in." Keep watching the video to see the tragic real-life story of Teri Hatcher. #TeriHatcher Childhood abuse | 0:00 Haunted by trauma | 1:27 Too much self-sacrifice | 2:24 A marriage without intimacy | 3:18 On-set feuding | 4:20 An unending divorce | 5:07 Behind-the-scenes sniping | 5:56 Mystery illness | 7:17 The other woman | 8:26 Broken heart routine | 9:22