Chelsea Handler Opens Up About Her Painful Past In Latest Memoir

Chelsea Handler is well known for bringing laughter to her audience, but the comedian opened up about some dark, painful moments in her new book Life Will Be The Death Of Me:…And You Too! As Radar Online shared, Handler tells the tragic story of losing her beloved brother at a young age and of a dark family secret that she recently uncovered.

Chandler shared the heartbreaking memory of her brother Chet’s untimely death after an incident that occurred while the young man was hiking in Wyoming. Chandler was 9 and her brother Chet was only 21 at the time of the accident, and the comedian recalled hearing her parents lock themselves in a room to cry and grieve over the loss of their son.

When she would hear her parents’ sobs through the door, she would leave the house and occupy herself elsewhere. She said the incident caused her parents to become “unreliable,” and thus, she began acting out in school to gain the attention she was missing at home. Chandler was frequently disciplined in school because of this.

“I tried to get attention in other ways at school – however I could – which resulted in me constantly having to stay after school and sit in detention,” she shared.

As an adult, the comedian sought out the help of a therapist to work through some issues she felt where rooted in her childhood. She revealed that with the help of her counselor, she began focusing on some of her behaviors she felt were caused by “male rejection” — having to battle for her father’s attention after the loss of her brother.

Additionally, Chandler opened up about the “love child” her father had before he married her mother and how the family buried the secret for years. A man named Anthony — who Chandler revealed does have a likeness to her father — contacted her sister, Shana, and had some questions about their family and wanted to know more about their father.

“His story was that my dad got his mother pregnant right before my father met my mother, and that when said woman came to tell my father she was pregnant, my dad told her he was getting married and to back off.”

The latest memoir from the former Chelsea Lately host — which arrives on April 9 in bookstores — also revealed that she and her long-time pal, Jennifer Anniston, have recently rekindled their friendship after Handler “severed” their bond for unknown reasons. She shared that because of the feud with the Friends alum, her Netflix show suffered. She took a step back from the spotlight and spent 2018 reflecting on her life and decisions — and found that she was in a period of growth to work on herself, her passion for politics, and continue her work in therapy.