John Stamos reveals he was sexually abused as a child: 'I packed it away'

John Stamos has revealed that he was sexually abused as a child.

The 60-year-old Full House alum told PEOPLE in a new interview that he needed to write his upcoming memoir, If You Would Have Told Me, to realize the truth behind the alleged incident involving a babysitter. As a longtime celebrity ambassador for ChildHelp, a nonprofit dedicated to the prevention and treatment of child abuse, Stamos said the memory was "always in the back" of his mind.

"I do so much advocacy for the [survivors]," he said. "I felt like I remembered it slightly. It has always been there, but I packed it away as people do, right?"

Representatives for Stamos did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment.

Stamos, who said he didn't tell anyone about it at the time, first reflected on the traumatic event while penning his acceptance speech for an award he once received for his advocacy.

"I started to write it, and that's when it really came out," he recalled. "And then I thought, 'No, tonight is not about me. It's about the kids. I'm going to pack it away again until the right moment.' Otherwise, I'm a phony f---. It's like, 'Come on.'"

As for including the story in his memoir, Stamos was initially hesitant, not wanting it to become the primary narrative.

"I didn't want the headlines to be that, and I didn't want the book to be over that," he explained. "It was a page or something, but I felt I had to talk about it. It was weird. It was something that, I think, I was probably like 10 or 11 [when it happened]. I shouldn't have had to deal with those feelings."

Stamos, who now has a 5-year-old son with his wife, Caitlin McHugh Stamos, added, "But I'll tell you, if I found out someone was doing that to my son? That's a totally different story."

In the memoir, Stamos addresses both the highs and lows of his career and personal life, including his divorce from Rebecca Romijn and his long road to sobriety, which began with his DUI arrest in 2015.

"I did set out to write a hero story," Stamos told PEOPLE. "But then as I was doing it I was like, 'No, I'm going to tell a human story.' Because with the hero story, that's bulls---. And unless I was a hundred percent forthcoming, what am I doing this for, right?"

Stamos' new memoir, If You Would Have Told Me, hits shelves Oct. 24.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

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