Elizabeth Smart, the 25-year-old Utah woman, who a decade ago was abducted for 9-months and survived sexual abuse by her captor released her memoir "My Story" on Monday, The Associated Press reported
"I didn't just want to go 10% and sugarcoat the rest. I wanted it to be really what happened and what it was like every single I was there, because I don't think I'm doing anyone any favors by sugarcoating it," Smart explained to CNN's Anderson Cooper on Monday.
Smart has since created the Elizabeth Smart Foundation to bring awareness to predatory crimes against children, but personally to help bring closure to that dark chapter of her life.
Smart's harrowing story began in June 2002 as a 14-year-old, she was dragged from her bedroom in the middle of the night by a street preacher, CNN reported.
"To me, in my bedroom is the ultimate place in safety. I mean, I felt like that was the safest place in the world for me, so waking up in the middle of the night in my own bedroom having this strange man standing over me, someone I didn't recognize, not only that but having a knife being held to my throat, I was terrified. I had grown up in a very happy home and I really didn't know what the definition of fear was until that moment. That brought whole new meaning," she explained to CNN's Anderson Cooper.
Smart endured nine months of constant sexual abuse, and had been deprived food and water.
"The next nine months, my days consisted of being hungry, of being bored to death because he talked nonstop always about himself. I mean, talk about self-absorbed. And then my days consisted of being raped. I mean, not just once, multiple times a day," Smart added.
Smart was rescued on March 12, 2003.
Her hopes with the release of her book and her various speaking engagements, intend to give others with similar situations that it is possible to move forward with their lives.
Smart announced in March 2012 that she had gotten married in a private ceremony in Hawaii.
