Kerry Washington is opening up about the news that challenged everything she knew about her family, and how it "turned [her] world upside down."
The Scandal star is ready to open up like never before with the release of her upcoming memoir, Thicker Than Water, where she doesn't hold back when it comes to addressing her past family conflicts, her mental health struggles, issues with body image, and more.
Among the revelations is the fact that her father, Earl Washington, is in fact not her biological father, something she herself only learned of in 2018.
Speaking of People about the shocking discovery, Kerry explained her parents only told her the truth about her father when she shared she was planning to appear on Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s PBS series Finding Your Roots, where celebrities learn about their lineage through a DNA test.
Her parents Valerie, a professor, and Earl, a real estate agent, subsequently had a discussion with the show's host about giving them time to break the news to their daughter.
"When I got this information, I was like, 'Oh. I now know my story,'" Kerry told the outlet of the moment in the spring of 2018, adding: "I didn't know what my story was, but I was playing the supporting character in their story."
She then explained her parents struggled with infertility, and she was conceived after the two opted to use a sperm donor when trying to expand their family.
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Kerry continued: "I think that dissonance of like, 'Somebody is not telling me something about my body,' made me feel like there was something in my body I had to fix," which she says subsequently manifested itself in her body image issues, mental health struggles, and more.
However today, it also manifested itself into something much more positive: her memoir, an attempt to share with the world her story in full.
She explained: "This is really kind of me working to understand my life up until now, given this new information that I have that, in many ways, felt like sort of the missing puzzle piece."
Though she admitted her parents are "not thrilled" she's sharing such intimate details about their family – including their fights that sparked her first panic attack – she maintained: "This really is a book about me. I now get to step into being the most important person in my life."
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Plus, she added: "I really started to have so much more love and compassion and understanding for my parents.
"Taking this deep dive into our family history made me put myself in their shoes and think about the things that they've had to navigate and what they've been through and what they've sacrificed. And it really made me feel closer to them."
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