Go-Go’s guitarist Kathy Valentine has detailed being raped by a "college-aged boy" and having an abortion as a teenager in her new memoir, ‘All I Ever Wanted’.
The 61-year-old musician – who is a member of the iconic all-female new wave band along with Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey and Gina Schock – has recalled the most painful memories from her youth, including when her mother took her to an abortion clinic in California because it was still illegal in their home state of Texas.
Valentine recalled overhearing the nurse observing that she was: "So young."
The music star – who was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame with her bandmates in 2011 – also shared how in 1972, she and her friend went hitchhiking and ended up back at the home of "two college-aged boys".
She explained that one was harassing her and refused to stop even when she told him to.
She writes: "It occurred to me that if I just let him, he would stop.
"He would leave me alone."
The boy who raped her told Valentine to stop sobbing as he was abusing her.
She said he told her to: "Stop crying. Cut it out."
Elsewhere, she opens up about how the band’s split in 1985 led to her alcohol addiction spiralling out of control.
Valentine – who is now sober – shares: "It all caught up at once: the sorrow, regret, shame, fear, abandonment and betrayals.
"My rock bottom came with realising my inability to change my life or my circumstances."
In May 2012, Valentine quit the band after she broke her wrist and was replaced for their tour
In 2013, a statement by the ‘Our Lips Are Sealed’ hitmakers’ cited "irreconcilable differences" as the reason for her exit.
She then sued the rest of the band for "breach of fiduciary duty and abuse of control … in an attempt to deprive [her] of her position and interest in the group, including her right to receive her full one-fifth, 20% share of the benefits and revenues generated by the group’s substantial reputation, fame, and goodwill".
By early 2014, the lawsuit was settled out of court, and Valentine rejoined the Go-Go’s in 2018 for a summer tour.
On what keeps her coming back to music, she writes: "I always play in a band, knowing that it’s too much of my identity to ever let go of.
"Somehow, at 60 years old, I still feel the same when I play as I did when I was 20."
Go-Go’s star Kathy Valentine recalls rape incident in new memoir
