United Kingdom, March 26 -- Kimberly Wyatt reveals how suffering sexual abuse as a child "chipped away" at her soul and security.

The 44-year-old Pussycat Dolls star has been candid about suffering abuse as a toddler and an attempted rape on a cruise ship aged 17, and she has opened up about the impact of surviving such horrific incidents.

She told Davina McCall on the Begin Again podcast: "You know I experienced a lot of sexual abuse and that really chipped away at my confidence, at my soul, at my feeling of being safe and that really was the making of me as a kid. I was very introverted."

She recalled "struggling to look in the mirror", but recalled her upbringing with "brilliant" parents in a small town in Missouri.

She said: "My d...