Teri Hatcher blamed herself for being sexually abused as a child.

Speaking at a United Nations event commemorating the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the 49-year-old actress said: "I was convinced it was my fault and I blamed myself for what had happened, so I didn't tell anyone and I was silent."

Teri claims no one in her family ever asked her "exactly what happened" but she finally managed to escape her abuser by acting out, according to Yahoo! News.

She said: "I did, however, unsurprisingly, start to act out and my mother decided to keep me away from my uncle. I didn't see him anymore, but no one in my family ever asked exactly what happened. We remained silent."

The brunette beauty opened up about the horrific abuse she endured at the hands of her uncle, who was jailed for 14 years, for the first time in 2006.

During an interview with Vanity Fair magazine, she said: "I have so much pain. I'm a woman who carries around all these layers of fear and vulnerability. I'm trying to be my powerful me; it's in there, but I have to find the strong part underneath the layers of 'I'm s**t. I'm never going to go anywhere!' "