John Stamos has revealed that he was sexually abused as a child.
John Stamos Talks About The Sexual Abuse He Faced During Childhood
The 60-year-old Full House alum told PEOPLE in a new interview that he needed to write his upcoming memoir, If You Would Have Told Me, to realize the truth behind the alleged incident involving a babysitter.
As a longtime celebrity ambassador for ChildHelp, a nonprofit dedicated to the prevention and treatment of child abuse, Stamos said the memory was "always in the back" of his mind.
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"I do so much advocacy for the [survivors]," he said. "I felt like I remembered it slightly. It has always been there, but I packed it away as people do, right?"
Representatives for Stamos did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment.
Stamos, who said he didn't tell anyone about it at the time, first reflected on the traumatic event while penning his acceptance speech for an award he once received for his advocacy.
"I started to write it, and that's when it really came out," he recalled. "And then I thought, 'No, tonight is not about me. It's about the kids. I'm going to pack it away again until the right moment.' Otherwise, I'm a phony f---. It's like, 'Come on.'"
As for including the story in his memoir, Stamos was initially hesitant, not wanting it to become the primary narrative.
"I didn't want the headlines to be that, and I didn't want the book to be over that," he explained. "It was a page or something, but I felt I had to talk about it. It was weird. It was something that, I think, I was probably like 10 or 11 [when it happened]. I shouldn't have had to deal with those feelings."
Stamos, who now has a 5-year-old son with his wife, Caitlin McHugh Stamos, added, "But I'll tell you, if I found out someone was doing that to my son? That's a totally different story."
In the memoir, Stamos addresses both the highs and lows of his career and personal life, including his divorce from Rebecca Romijn and his long road to sobriety, which began with his DUI arrest in 2015.
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"I did set out to write a hero story," Stamos told PEOPLE. "But then as I was doing it I was like, 'No, I'm going to tell a human story.' Because with the hero story, that's bulls---. And unless I was a hundred percent forthcoming, what am I doing this for, right?"
Stamos' new memoir, If You Would Have Told Me, hits shelves Oct. 24.
Who Is John Stamos?
John Stamos first captured attention as a screen heartthrob on the soap opera General Hospital in the early 1980s. He then landed the career-defining role of Uncle Jesse Katsopolis on the beloved hit show Full House, later reprising the character and serving as an executive producer on the Netflix spinoff Fuller House.
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Along with his contributions to other popular series like ER and You, Stamos has starred on Broadway, started his own production company, and toured and recorded with The Beach Boys.
Who Is In John’s Family?
Born on August 19, 1963, in Cypress, California, John Phillip Stamos is the son of Loretta (nee Phillips) and Bill Stamos, a restaurateur.’
Bill’s father, a Greek immigrant, changed the family’s surname from Stamatopolous. John has two younger sisters, Alana and Janeen.
At his father’s insistence, young Stamos worked for the family’s fast-food eateries. Contrary to the bad-boy image he would later embody, Stamos spent his teen years flipping burgers for the Orange County–based Duke’s and Yellow Basket restaurants, along with playing drums in John F. Kennedy High School’s marching band.
Stamos described himself as “the dorky kid” in school; he was interested in magic and often went to the Disneyland theme park only 20 minutes from his home.
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Stamos said the experience of working for his father influenced his acting career.
“Because of my dad and the discipline he had toward his work, I learned to be a pro and arrive early and know my lines and hit my marks,” he told Orange Coast Magazine.
In 1976, he saw his first Beach Boys concert—a seminal experience for the avid fan—and at 15, he began to pursue acting and music in earnest. His parents supported Stamos’ artistic aspirations, and although John intended to enroll at Cypress College in 1981, Bill agreed that his son should skip his first semester to take a legitimate shot at a professional acting career.