Brooke Shields for Good Housekeeping Magazine

Brooke Shields graces the January issue of Good Housekeeping. The actress opens up about her career struggles and troubled past: an alcoholic mother, a “toxic” childhood of exploitation and emotional abuse. Find out how she’s coming to terms with it all, and giving her girls the childhood she never had.

On building her career, from a sexy icon to a respected actress: “The old me felt creepy and I didn’t want to be it anymore…Everybody thought I would suck. I thought, if I get slaughtered, I will cry, it will be horrible, but I’ll have taken another step. And I tried not to think about whether I was talented or not – I still don’t think about whether I have any real talent. What I did know was hard work.”

On her mother, Teri, diagnosed with dementia: “She’s still as needy, toxic, and scarred as she was. [But] now she’s just broken. She’s just sad…The minute I walk in the door, my mother’s usually very judgmental or critical—I’m fat, or my hair’s too dark. And then in the next breath, it’s this crazy, loving, adoring ‘I love you.’ ”

On her ex-husband, tennis star Andre Agassi: “He was the one who said, ‘You need to change it up—get an agent, maybe move to California, be serious…You need to figure out how to separate from your mom.’ ”

On parenting: “I think people let their kids express themselves a little too much these days, actually. It’s all sort of, ‘Let them be!’ There are rules.”

On her husband, television writer Chris Henchy: “He’s extremely patient and ridiculously funny. And he has the ability to approach situations head-on and not let things fester. He gives me an incredible amount of freedom, and yet he knows just where to draw the line.”