Teen Mom OG star Mackenzie McKee revealed some shocking news about her childhood.
The 26-year-old MTV star has a new autobiography hitting shelves this week.
In the book, titled Straightening my Crown, a memoir, Mackenzie opens up about her early years growing up in Oklahoma.
One excerpt, in particular, reveals some troubling news about Mackenzie’s past — she was molested multiple times as a child.
Teen Mom OG star Mackenzie McKee recounts being sexually abused as a child
As reported by The Sun, Mackenzie recounted the events, explaining that while growing up she was an “extrovert.”
Mackenzie talked about being a “scrawny,” adventurous kid who was “desperate” to make friends. She was just four years old when she first experienced abuse at the hands of a boy who was eight years older than she was.
Trigger warning: the following details contain some accounts that may be disturbing to some.
“We often played together, and one day, he told me we were going to play a new game where we would pretend to be dogs. I loved games and dogs, so naturally, I was excited,” Mackenzie wrote.
She continued, “We began imagining that we were puppies, and he told me I would have a special role to play. I was going to be the mommy dog, and he would be the daddy dog. ‘Mommy dogs,’ he explained, ‘didn’t wear pants,’ and he pulled me into the closet and shut the door where no one could find us.”
“I was the mommy dog, and I had to do ‘puppy things’ as all mommy dogs do. The boy did inappropriate things, and this happened a few times. I was confused, but I played along since I wanted so desperately to be liked,” Mackenzie admitted.
As if her first experience weren’t enough to deal with, Mackenzie, who asked trolls to stop shaming her son, then found herself in a similar situation as a child.
While spending the night at a friend’s house, whom her mom Angie Douthit “trusted,” Mackenzie recalled an incident with another older boy, in his early teens.
“He told me that he wanted to wrestle, and being a rough-and-tumble tomboy, I was ready to throw down. Quickly, I realized this was a different type of wrestling than the one I played with my siblings back home.”
“Things went in a direction that made me uncomfortable, even though, at that time, I knew nothing. He did it nearly every time I visited,” Mackenzie revealed.
“One day, he asked me if I wanted to wrestle, and I told him no. With fire in his eyes, he yelled at me, ‘No! You are going to wrestle with me whether you want to or not.’ I had never seen him react so angrily and strongly when I refused to play other games, and I wondered why wrestling was so different. After I wouldn’t wrestle with him that time, he never wanted to play with me again.”
Mackenzie continued, “I didn’t understand why, but I figured that saying no to wrestling must have been the problem, but I didn’t know what I could do to make him like me again.”
“I later realized how damaging this is to children. We learn at a young age that people will throw us away if we stand our ground. It also ruins a child’s self-esteem, and later in life, that grown child has difficulty seeing where this loss came from.”
Mackenzie didn’t realize she was being sexually abused
Mackenzie, who recently battled COVID-19, went on to say that she didn’t realize she was actually being sexually abused until later in life while in fifth grade.
At the time, Mackenzie and a friend accidentally stumbled upon porn on TV when she realized it was eerily similar to the puppy game she had played with the boy.
Mackenzie wants her readers to know that if they’ve experienced sexual abuse, it’s not their fault and they shouldn’t feel ashamed.
“Anyone who’s gone through this should know that there’s no need to carry shame and guilt for something that others did to you,” Mackenzie wrote in her book.
She continued, “I sometimes wish I would have gotten help sooner instead of bottling this inside and letting the pain come out in sinful behavior. But like I always say, our struggles mold us into the strong people we become.”
Mackenzie’s book is available in book stores on October 19.
If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual abuse and needs support, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
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