Entertainment> Celebrities

Brooke Shields' fame drug

(Agencies)
2010-03-09 19:32

Actress Brooke Shields arrives for the amFAR (The Foundation for AIDS Research) annual gala to kick off Fashion Week in New York February 10, 2010. [Agencies]

Brooke Shields says being famous is like a "drug".

The 44-year-old beauty spent much of her childhood acting and modelling and while she enjoyed it, she will never let her two daughters, Rowan, six, and three-year-old Grier, follow in her footsteps because she also knows the pitfalls.

She said: "It's a high like you can't imagine. It's like a drug.

"But no, I don't want them involved. Every day you're told what you are not: You're not short enough, you're not thin enough, you're not pretty enough. You're always losing out."

Related readings:  Photos:Brooke Shields attends the Pamella Roland Fall 2010 collection  Brooke Shields waiting for resurrection  Photo: Star Tracks: Celebrity moms and their kids

Brooke also revealed her heartache at watching her own mother suffer from Alzheimer's disease and the effect the illness - a form of dementia - has on her children.

She told the Ladies Home Journal magazine: "I've dealt with her alcoholism for years, but this is so new to me. I'm confident in my own mothering, I've been making all my own decisions for a long time, but after all these years, I want my mom.

"My oldest is uncomfortable because she knows more. One day she said, 'Mom, are you gonna be crazy like Toots when you grow up?' I was like, 'Oh, God.' "

But Brooke - who is married to television writer Chris Henchy - admits being a devoted working mother, wife and daughter can be quite challenging.

She said: "I'm greedy. We were walking to school yesterday and my daughter said, 'Mom, I want you to be a class mom.' I laughed in her sweet little face and said, 'You want me to be a class mom?' I said, 'I'm a classy mom. Isn't that enough?' "