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"Missy Elliott has revealed that she was a victim of sexual abuse during childhood.  The &amp;#039;Sock It To Me&amp;#039; star admitted that she was only 8 years old when she began being molested by her 16-year-old cousin when visiting his house after school while her mother worked.  Elliott explained during her episode of VH1&amp;#039;s Behind The Music: &amp;quot;Each day he wanted me to come to the house after school.  &amp;quot;It became sexual, which, for me at eight years old, I had no clue what that was, but I knew something was wrong. &amp;quot;Being molested... it don&amp;#039;t disappear. You remember it as if it was yesterday.&amp;quot; Elliott recently announced that she has been suffering from Graves&amp;#039; disease since 2008.  The condition is an autoimmune disease where an overactive thyroid causes a metabolic imbalance of thyroid hormones in the body. However, Elliott later insisted that the illness has not slowed her down or affected her career in a negative way.  Watch an excerpt from Missy Elliott&amp;#039;s episode of Behind the Music below (US users only):  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/news/a327791/missy-elliott-reveals-childhood-sexual-abuse/>