Kara DioGuardi Reveals Past Sex Abuse in New Memoir

April 19, 2011 — -- Kara DioGuardi's path to stardom was far from smooth.

In her upcoming memoir, "A Helluva High Note," the songwriter and former "American Idol" judge reveals that she was molested as a child, date raped by a famous record producer and sexually harassed by a "hugely successful artist."

DioGuardi first endured sexual abuse at age 11 at the hands of a male family friend.

"On one particular day, he took me into the back shed of his house and put his hands all over my breasts and vagina," she writes, according to a book excerpt obtained by E! News. "I remember freezing and not knowing what to do."

In 2000, she found herself in a similar situation with a "fairly known producer." After sharing what she thought was a friendly dinner, DioGuardi describes how he forced himself on her.

"Within a few hours, he was on top of me, pumping, sweating and speaking to me in Spanish, not a word of which I could understand," she writes.

According to E!, DioGuardi repeatedly told him to stop but didn't physically fight him because she feared he'd turn violent. She stayed silent about the incident until now because she was afraid it would destroy her career.

A few years later, DioGuardi said she was sexually harassed by a "hugely successful artist" during a three-day songwriting trip. Instead of working on music, she writes that "the trip's activities consisted of watching Russian porn, scavenging around the kitchen for food [and] leering at two strippers ... as they performed sex acts in the living room."

Still, DioGuardi continued to work with the artist. She writes, "I wasn't gonna let this bastard deter me from doing the job." Eventually, though, she cut off ties with him after he "chased her around the basement of his suburban home and forced her hand on his privates," according to E!