Constance Wu is revealing more details from her new, deeply personal memoir, "Making a Scene." During an appearance on "The Kelly Clarkson Show" [1] on Oct. 6, the "Fresh Off the Boat" actor opened up about how becoming a mom helped repair her relationship with her mother.
"The beautiful thing about becoming pregnant is it sort of brought us together again."
Wu, who quietly welcomed her first child [2] with her boyfriend Ryan Kattner in August 2020, spoke about receiving advice for her now-2-year-old from her mom groups and fellow mom friends, as well as her own mother, who she hadn't spoken to for five or six years. "The relationship [with your mom] is such a journey, and that's what's beautiful about it, but it's one of the things that I write about in my book that I was really ashamed of and embarrassed of for a long time," she said of their estrangement. "I didn't speak to her, not even an email, and that's on me. But the beautiful thing about becoming pregnant is it sort of brought us together again, and we've reconciled since then and continued building a wonderful relationship." In "Making a Scene," Wu shares how she took the public scrutiny from "Fresh Off the Boat" out on her mom, leading to a strained relationship. "Paranoia and anxiety made me say regretful things to her," she writes, according to Us Weekly [3]. Wu kept the estranged relationship a secret from most people. "Only my sisters and close childhood friends knew about this. I never spoke of those years of estrangement because I was afraid of judgment," Wu writes.
The actor's memoir also consists of personal, powerful stories from her upbringing and career, including details of her suicide attempt [4] after facing intense social media backlash in 2019. She also opened up about being sexually assaulted [5] early on her career, as well as experiencing sexual harassment and intimidation on the "Fresh Off the Boat" set [6].
"I want to talk about it so other young women who might be struggling with the same thing know they're not alone and that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It takes work but you can get there," she said of her painful experiences while chatting with Clarkson [7]. Watch a clip from Wu's honest interview above.