Brooke Shields shared a huge secret with the world when she released her 2023 documentary "Pretty Baby".
However, no one was as shocked to learn about her being sexually assaulted in her early 20s by a powerful, unnamed Hollywood executive as her youngest daughter Grier, 18.
"I didn't prepare her," the 59-year-old told People. "It was a miscommunication."
Brooke explained: "I had explained it was an exploration of sexualization of women in my industry, but I was naively thinking that because we had such a solid, healthy, fairly normal existence and I'm not completely damaged that she would say, 'Wow you've come through a lot but look where we are today.'"
While Brooke's eldest daughter Rowan, 21, knew about the assault, Grier found out while watching the documentary.
"I was learning about things the same time that the world was, and I just took it more deeply and personally," Grier said. "I couldn't even get through it."
© Getty ImagesRecalling Grier's reaction, Brooke said: "I told her, 'But there's a happy ending' and she said, 'I will never be okay with thinking something bad happened to you.'
"She ended up missing the happy part," Brooke added. "She felt helpless, and just as a mom, we make mistakes and sometimes we make assumptions."
Brooke said that she has learned a lot from her mistake with Grier.
© Getty ImagesShe reflected: "To see the documentary or to see your parents as a public figure that other people have opinions on is just an odd situation. I've learned a lot by listening to them."
"Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields" examines the life of the legendary actress and model as she grew up in the public eye, with her first modeling contract when she was 11, and exploring her role in a society that sexualizes young women and girls. The film shows Brooke looking back over pivotal moments of her life.
Ahead of the New York City screening of the documentary in March 2023, Brooke admitted that she landed herself in some trouble with both of her daughters for keeping secrets from them.
© Instagram"There's a lot in the documentary they did not know about," she told People. "They were mad that I didn't inform them about everything."
Brooke shares Grier and Rowan with her husband Chris Henchy, 60, who is the founder of Funny or Die. The couple married in 2001.
Rowan graduated from high school in 2021 – she wore the same strapless gown her mom wore to the 1998 Golden Globes to her senior prom – and later in the year, she started her first year of college at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
© Screenshot The Tonight Show with Jimmy FallonGrier graduated from high school in August and in a nod to her mom, she wore the same dress Brooke wore when she married tennis legend Andre Agassi in 1997.
"Her graduation dress was my first wedding dress," Brooke told People. "She looked great in it."
© InstagramLike her famous mother, Grier "expressed interest in going into the modeling world" when she turned 16.
In 2022, the mother-daughter duo appeared in a Victoria's Secret photoshoot for the brand's Mother's Day campaign.
