Swoosie Kurtz is opening up about her “anguishing” experience having an abortion in the 1960s, saying it was one of the most difficult things she has ever experienced.
The two-time Tony Award winning actress revealed the abortion during an interview on Wednesday, saying she had kept it a secret even from her own mother.
“I just couldn’t,” she told Huffpost Live about telling her mother. “I don’t know why. I just couldn’t at that point.”
Swoosie Kurtz revealed the abortion when host Ricky Camilleri asked about her 1996 movie Citizen Ruth , which focuses on abortion. Kurtz revealed that the movie had a deeper meaning for her.
“It was very important to me,” Kurtz said, “because I had an abortion.” Kurtz then turned to the camera and said, “gosh, did I just say that?”
“It was very, very difficult for me. It was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever been through in my life. On all levels. Impossibly difficult.”
Swoosie Kurtz has been opening up lately, having just published an autobiography about her life on Broadway and Hollywood titled Part Swan, Part Goose: An Uncommon Memoir Of Womanhood, Work, And Family .
The publisher’s description of the book noted it has “just the right combination of personal misadventure and showbiz lore, candidly reflecting on the right choices that empowered her, the wrong choices that enlightened her, and the intimate journey of caring for an aging parent.”
Though Kurtz may have kept the abortion a secret from her parents, she still enjoyed a close relationship with them, publishers noted.
“Her father, Frank, was an Olympic athlete and highly decorated World War II airman. He flew a record number of missions in a cobbled-together B-17D called the Swoose,” the book’s preview noted. “Her mother, Margo, was the quintessential military wife but with the spunk and will to match her husband’s. Her 1945 memoir, My Rival, the Sky, chronicled their lives up to the time of the birth of their daughter.”
The revelation that Swoosie Kurtz had an abortion in her youth could still a stir in the family. Her mother is alive today and approaching her 100th birthday. She still lives with Swoosie.