Brooke Shields Opens Up About Her Late Mother Teri

— -- Though the iconic actress admits "I was her greatest creation," Brooke Shields says life with her mother Teri wasn't always smooth sailing.

Teri Shields died in 2012 and only now is Brooke able to write about their close, yet complicated relationship.

In excerpts from her upcoming book, "There Was a Little Girl," obtained by People magazine, Shields reveals her mother, who was also her manager, was an alcoholic. Teri Shields would often leave Brooke at a neighbor's home when she went out partying and even organized dates for a young Brooke with celebrity men.

"Even though I understood her better than anybody else, I'm not sure I ever understood her fully," the former model and "Blue Lagoon" star writes.

Shields, 49, also gets candid about her mother's death from dementia and dealing with that process.

"Her brain had so long remained seemingly sharp," Shields writes. "I was sure it would be her liver that went."

But through it all, Shields is positive and likes to think back on the times mother and daughter could laugh "till we couldn't breathe."

"There Was a Little Girl: The Real Story of My Mother and Me," is out in bookstores on Nov. 18.