'This Is Us' actress Chrissy Metz talks learning to forgive abuse by her stepfather

"I had to forgive him in order to move on," she said.

March 28, 2018, 2:51 PM

Chrissy Metz of "This is Us" opened up to "The View" today about how she'd moved past the trauma of childhood abuse at the hands of her stepfather and learned to forgive him.

"It was difficult, for sure," she said about the road to forgiveness. "I had to forgive him in order to move on."

Metz plays the character of Kate Pearson on the television series and has written a new book called "This Is Me." In the book, she talks about her stepfather sometimes hitting her and criticizing her weight.

"I have to be gracious enough to say, you know what, he gets to mature and move on and apologize and accept responsibility for his actions," Metz said of her stepfather. "I can forgive him."

Metz told the "The View" hosts today that she has a "great relationship now" with her stepfather after "bonding time," which she says was "super important, coming on the other side of such heart-wrenching misunderstandings and abuse."

Metz's stepfather chose not to comment but has said that he loves her.

"I think everybody deserves mercy and grace and I've been given it," Metz said. "We can be kind and gracious in their pain to move through ours together."

"I do know that hurt people hurt people," she said. "If people knew better, they would do better."

Metz also spoke today about why she has disowned traditional fashion "rules" for plus-size women, such as avoiding bold colors and prints.

"My question is like, who made them (rules)?" Metz said. "Do what you wanna do. ... We have to do what makes us feel good. ... So many of us care, me included, about what other people think!"

She said that clothing was about "comfortability, functionality, but also, yeah, I also wanna look cute!"