Teri Hatcher Tells Vanity Fair She Was Sexually Abused as a Child

March 8, 2006 — -- Teri Hatcher, a star of "Desperate Housewives," has revealed to Vanity Fair magazine that she was sexually molested by an uncle when she was 5 years old.

The interview with Leslie Bennetts is the first time Hatcher has talked publicly about the abuse, which she says took place 35 years ago. Hatcher, 41, later helped put the man behind bars.

In 2002, Hatcher learned that her uncle Richard Hayes Stone had been arrested on child molestation charges and that an alleged victim, a 14-year-old girl, had committed suicide.

Hatcher contacted authorities and told them her story. The case was on the verge of being dismissed when she came forward, but her testimony was instrumental in persuading Stone to plead guilty to four counts of child molestation of two girls. The 64-year-old received a 14-year prison sentence.

"I didn't intend to talk about this with you," Hatcher told Bennetts in Vanity Fair, which will hit newsstands Friday. "But it is something that's been surfacing with me for the past three years. This is something I've tried to hide my whole life."

Bennetts said she doesn't believe Hatcher had any intention of talking about the abuse. Bennetts said the interview was a gradual process, and the two spent a lot of time getting to know each other.

Bennetts said that at first Hatcher only told her the story off the record -- Hatcher was very conflicted about going public with the claim.

Hatcher told Bennetts that she was afraid of going public in 2002 because cynics might accuse her of using it to get attention and resuscitate an expiring career. But she found herself tormented by the thought of the alleged victim who shot herself.

"I kept thinking, if she'd known me, especially me being famous, if I could have said to her, 'Look, it happened to me!' If I could just have said to her, 'You're going to be OK ...'," Hatcher said in the interview.

Hatcher said she never told anyone about what happened to her as a child, not even her parents, and she doesn't mention the ordeal in her forthcoming book, "Burnt Toast: And Other Philosophies of Life."