Missy Elliott Reveals Past of Poverty, Sexual Abuse

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Missy Elliott has opened up about her troubled past of poverty, childhood sexual abuse, witnessing extreme domestic violence between her parents and her ongoing battle with Graves' disease.

In VH1's latest 'Behind the Music' documentary which debuted yesterday (June 29), the highly accomplished and celebrated female rapper, who celebrates her 40th birthday tomorrow (July 1), reveals she grew up in dismal state of poverty in Portsmouth, Va. "I remember having mice in the house and my father taking some newspaper and beating me because mice was running on me while I was asleep," she revealed.

Missy's mom Patricia Elliott adds, "We didn't have running water ... We were going in a pot that sat by her bed, because we didn't have a bathroom."

Missy also shared the shocking story of sexual abuse at the hands of her 16-year-old cousin when she was only 8. She recalls, "Each day he wanted me to come to the house after school. It became sexual, which, for me at eight years old, I had no clue what that was, but I knew something was wrong."

"Being molested ... it don't disappear. You remember it as if it was yesterday," Missy adds. The rapper explains the abuse took place over the course of a year, but that she never told anyone at the time.

Missy talks about witnessing the abuse of her mother at the hands of her father, which escalated into a gun altercation when Missy was 14. Elliott's mother recalls, "Missy saw that the fight was just beyond measures. My husband said, 'This is it, I'm gonna kill you. It's over!' I was so tired of being beaten over and over I just said, 'Fine, just do it'."

Missy picks up where her mom left off, "He pulled the gun out in front of me. I was screaming, 'Daddy, please don't kill my mother!'" Missy's maternal uncle, who was next door, intervened and put an end to the incident, which Missy called the "scariest time in my life."

Missy also talked about her recently revealed Graves' disease diagnosis -- an incurable autoimmune disorder, which Missy had been keeping mum about since 2008.

After three years of silence, Missy publicly disclosed that she was diagnosed with the thyroid disease after experiencing a frightening loss of muscle control and suffering several other debilitating hyperthyroid symptoms, including mood swings and hair loss. Elliott turned to radiation treatment, which has greatly improved her condition, but cannot cure her of the disease.