Brooke Shields achieved a stunning level of fame at a young age.
You'll be shocked to learn how many magazine covers she appeared on in one year alone.
She's still making headlines decades into a fascinating and singular career.
It's safe to say that Brooke Shields probably can't remember a time when she wasn't an actress.
When she was only 11 months old, she landed her first professional role in an Ivory soap
commercial, thanks to her mother Teri.
Teri Shields had once been a model herself, and it was a friend in the industry who first
suggested that she bring Brooke to audition for the commercial.
After that initial gig, Teri became the devoted manager of her daughter's career.
As Brooke once told People Magazine,
"I was her greatest creation.
It was us against the world."
Although Shields started working when she was a baby, her first real brush with fame
came at the age of 11 when she played a sex worker in the 1978 film Pretty Baby.
Understandably, her youth combined with this kind of role stirred up plenty of controversy.
But at the time, Shields was simply having fun on set.
As she told The Guardian in 2021,
"I just loved the approval.
And I loved working and I loved being on a set [...] I also wasn't personally scathed
by it."
In fact, she's always been proud of the film, and even now, she maintains that it wasn't
inappropriate, nor did it leave her with any deep-seated trauma.
As she put it to USA Today in 2014,
"I was such a naïve, innocent child.
I wasn't Lolita.
I didn't have that precocious understanding of my sexuality."
After the success of Pretty Baby, Shields' career continued to blossom.
During her teenage years, she appeared in a variety of films, but it was 1980's The
Blue Lagoon and 1981's Endless Love that got the most attention.
In both of those movies, Shields once again played eroticized teenagers.
There was also her famous Calvin Klein ad in 1980, and she appeared on the cover of
more than 30 magazines in 1981.
Throughout it all, she remained focused on doing a good job, rather than reveling in
the fame.
As she put it to The Guardian in 2017,
"It was a lot of work [...] You just wanted a gold star, you know?"
Behind the cameras, there was a very good reason for Shields to be taking her work so
seriously.
As she got older, her mother Teri's drinking became a defining feature of Brooke's early
years.
As Brooke recounted to The Guardian in 2014,
"My mother's alcoholism kept me on the straight and narrow throughout my childhood and teen
years.
I was a caretaker to a drinker.
I didn't have time to consider going off the rails myself — all I wanted to do was to
get A's in school and keep my mum alive."
Even though Brooke was in many ways the mature one in the relationship, Teri also babied
Brooke well into her teens and early 20s.
As Brooke revealed to The Guardian in 2017, Teri would brashly interrupt interviews because
she thought Brooke needed a restroom break to, quote, "go tinkles."
Teri even told Brooke to write a chapter about her virginity in her memoir The Brooke Book.
Ultimately, this codependent relationship proved to be too intense.
As Brooke described it to The Guardian,
"​​I was in a cocoon with my mom.
You know, we were one summer away from Grey Gardens."
Brooke Shields was under an intense spotlight throughout her teenage years.
Media coverage speculated upon intimate details about her life, as well as her various relationships
with a series of famous men.
First was pop star Michael Jackson, with whom she struck up a close friendship in the 80s.
He reportedly asked her to marry him, but she always felt that their bond was more platonic.
As she recounted to Rolling Stone,
"I would say, 'You have me for the rest of your life, you don't need to marry me, I'm
going to go on and do my own life and have my own marriage and my own kids, and you'll
always have me.'"
Shields also had several romantic relationships of note, as she was linked to the likes of
singer Leif Garrett, actor Scott Baio, and singer George Michael.
And, according to her memoir There Was a Little Girl: The Real Story of My Mother and Me,
she also dated Liam Neeson.
He apparently proposed twice, but Shields didn't trust him.
"I find it very important to feel very comfortable with an individual."
After spending years in the Hollywood spotlight from such a young age, Brooke Shields made
the surprising choice to attend Princeton University.
As far as she's concerned, while her time at college may not have been ideal for her
career momentum, it was exactly what she needed.
As she told The Today Show in 2021,
"I had been working for so long by then it was almost like a vacation."
"It didn't occur to me not to go."
And as she put it to Princeton Magazine,
"It's been the thing that's helped me stay standing."
While attending the university, Shields tried to live as normal a life as possible.
She dated regular guys and even fell in love for the first time and lost her virginity.
It's clear that those four years are a big part of why Shields has remained so grounded
throughout her career.
When Brooke Shields met tennis player Andre Agassi in 1993, the course of her life changed
dramatically.
At the time, her mother Teri was still running her career, but Agassi encouraged her to cut
ties.
Shields then reportedly closed down her mother's management office and canceled the company
credit cards.
In hindsight, she realizes that this was a drastic, cold way to do things.
Her relationship with Agassi ended up turning bad, but she's remained grateful to him for
helping her break free from her unhealthy relationship with her mother.
Shields and Agassi got married in 1997, but ultimately divorced in 1999.
In her memoir There Was a Little Girl, she admitted that she knew almost instantly that
the marriage was a mistake.
She was filming the NBC sitcom Suddenly Susan, while Agassi had a busy tennis schedule, which
left them very little time to spend together.
As she wrote in the memoir,
"He alienated me when he lost and was on to the next tournament after he won.
We were drifting apart."
Agassi was unhappy as well.
As he wrote in his autobiography Open,
"I have a thought no man should have on his wedding day: I wish I were leaving too.
I wish I had a decoy groom to take my place."
On top of all that, Agassi had an addiction to crystal meth.
Ultimately, it appears that separation was the best decision for both of them.
After divorcing Andre Agassi, Shields met screenwriter Chris Henchy, and the two tied
the knot in 2001.
According to Shields, in many ways it was her first marriage that made it possible to
have a healthier relationship with Henchy.
As she told The Guardian in 2017,
"I [...] think I couldn’t have even been with my [now] husband had I not been in that
relationship with Andre."
Over the years, Henchy and Shields have gone to build a strong, powerful bond.
Following her previous relationships, she learned the importance of maintaining space.
As she revealed to Closer Weekly in 2018, she and Henchy often need to travel to opposite
sides of the country for work, and she also loves having separate sinks at home.
Of course, the couple still loves to spend quality time together.
It's clear that Shields has grown a lot and learned some key lessons about how to make
a healthy relationship work.
In 2003, Brooke Shields gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Rowan.
For a long time, she and Chris Henchy had struggled to conceive, and they went through
several rounds of in vitro fertilization.
After Rowan was born, though, it wasn't suddenly all happiness all the time, as Shields was
shocked to find a deep depression setting in.
As she admitted during an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show,
"Everybody says it's the most amazing moment in your life.
I don't know how many people are really telling the truth because I think it becomes amazing
— you have to grow into it.
It was so dramatic and it was not glorious."
When she and her newborn got home, Shields struggled to bond with her daughter.
As she put it,
"I had no desire to even pretend to care about her.
And it absolutely terrified me."
Shields eventually realized that she had severe postpartum depression, and after being prescribed
antidepressants, she began to feel like her old self again.
"I'm grateful for pioneers like you that were strong enough to say, when no one else was
saying, 'You're not alone.'"
A few years after Rowan was born, Brooke Shields had another daughter named Grier.
The mom of two soon settled into a new rhythm centered around quiet family life.
While growing up with an overbearing mother who struggled with alcoholism, Shields never
had the urge to act out.
She wanted things to be different for her daughters, so she set clear boundaries and
strict routines that involved consistent dinner times and weekly church attendance, a stark
difference from her own childhood spent traveling between film sets.
While Shields has made sure to spend plenty of quality time with her children, she hasn't
let her family priorities get in the way of her career.
As she explained to Good Housekeeping in 2009,
"I'm so adamant that being a really good parent does not mean you have to be there 24/7."
It certainly appears that after a hectic childhood, Shields has found her own way of building
a steady, healthy family life.
In 2021, Shields endured a horrible, life-changing accident.
She was at the gym for a workout challenge when she decided to hop back on the balance
board at the end of one of her sessions.
Unfortunately, she lost her focus, fell, and snapped her femur.
"I landed so heavy and so hard."
Shields was rushed to the hospital, where multiple metal rods were inserted into her
hip.
But then her arm, where she'd had an IV, became infected.
"I don't think I've ever been more afraid because I was helpless."
Eventually, Shields entered a recovery period, which ended up being a grueling process involving
massage, exercises, and plenty of perseverance.
Although the ordeal was terrifying, it taught Shields a crucial lesson: that she has a huge
store of inner strength.
"Cause you see who you are.
You see what you're made up of."
It's hardly a secret that Hollywood is unkind to women as they get older.
But amidst all that sexism and ageism, Brooke Shields has faced middle age with an impressive
degree of self-acceptance.
When she was younger, she was often critiqued for her body type.
But, as she told Marie Claire in 2021,
"Over the years, I have decided that I'm not going to be done in."
Instead of succumbing to ageism, Shields has become a proud, vocal advocate for the empowerment
of middle-aged women.
As far as she's concerned, it's never too late to look and feel your best.
And her newfound self-love isn't just for her personal life, as it's also an attitude
she brings to work.
To that end, she started a wellness company called Beginning Is Now to encourage other
women her age to embrace their bodies and get fit, no matter how old or inexperienced
they are.
Shields is also advocating against ageism in her acting career.
In 2021, she took on the lead role of Sophie in the Netflix rom-com A Castle for Christmas,
as she was drawn to playing a middle-aged woman with a full life and the capacity for
romance.
As she noted to USA Today,
"It's such a refreshing perspective, because it's real.
I know so many women, even just over 40, who are either divorced or falling in love or
deciding to get married for the first time."
It sounds like defying stereotypes is a big part of what made Shields eager to take on
this part, and we sure hope she continues to challenge expectations in the future!
"I think I've had an extraordinary life."
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