Actress Brooke Shields on How a Coffee Table and a Defiant Mother Saved Her Life

Teresa Neumann : Nov 24, 2014
Maria Vitale Gallagher - Life News

"Too many people use abortion as a form of birth control. And that's very wrong. I could never, ever, have an abortion." -Brooke Shields in a 1991 Redbook Magazine interview

(Hollywood, CA)—In her new memoir, "There Was a Little Girl," Brooke Shields revealed that her mother almost aborted her when she was pregnant with the future actress. (Photo via Life News)

According to a Life News report, Shield writes that "when her mother became pregnant, her boyfriend did not appear ready to assume the role of father. She surmises that he told his own dad, who in turn, decided to convince Brooke's mother to 'terminate the pregnancy.' Her grandfather explained how an out-of-wedlock birth could jeopardize her father's standing on the 'Social Registry.'"

"Basically," said Shields, "it just wouldn't look good for my dad to father a child with somebody from Newark."

At that point, the grandfather then passed an envelope to Shields' mother containing money for an abortion.

As reported in Breitbart, Shields said her mother fully understood what was being asked of her, but "had no intention of getting an abortion and saw no reason not to take the cash." She also noted that her mother, being "defiant as always, knew she wanted a baby and that was that."

Instead of getting an abortion, wrote Shields, her mother took the money and immediately went to a favorite antique store where (she) bought a cherry wood oval coffee table.

"It's funny," noted Shields. "That table would become a favorite standing stool for me as I grew up. I remember teething on it and loving to repeatedly fold the sides up and down. The table saved my life and helped me to stand."