REBEL WILSON - 'T'M PROUD OF WHAT I'VE OVERCOME

IN A BOLD NEW MEMOIR, THE PITCH PERFECT STAR OPENS UP ABOUT HER PAINFUL PAST AND HER SURPRISING JOURNEY TO LOVE AND MOTHERHOOD

- LIZ MCNEIL

When she first came to Hollywood, Rebel Wilson was often told how brave she was. "Did I fight in a war? Run into a burning building? No," says the actress, 44. "It was that I dared to exist in a town where only thin women were valued. I dared to walk on that red carpet and smile in my bigger body."

As she reveals in her new memoir Rebel Rising, excerpted exclusively here, true courage meant much more. The Australian-born actress and oldest of four-her parents, Sue and Warwick Bownds, both worked on the dog show circuit and were what Wilson calls "one step above carnies"survived a tough childhood and a strained relationship with her father, who was violent at times.

She dreamed of escape and in 2009 sold everything she owned and moved to Hollywood, where her comic bravado in such films as Bridesmaids and the Pitch Perfect franchise proved that larger women could be much more than just "the funny fat friend." She hoped to use those same comedic chops when Sacha Baron Cohen asked her to costar in the 2016 film The Brothers Grimsby. But she claims in her book he humiliated her on-set, which Baron Cohen adamantly denies (see sidebar).

Now engaged to fashion designer Ramona Agruma, 40, and a mom to daughter Royce, 16 months, Wilson says she's sharing her roller-coaster journey "with the hope that people might find some inspiration. Maybe some people thought it was brave, but I was just being myself."

My mother wanted to call me Rebel. But my father disagreed. "They'll never let her into Tara with that name!" Even then, he had planned to send his children to the same Christian private schools he'd attended, so on my birth certificate, I was given the name Melanie Elizabeth Bownds. Mum didn't stand up to Dad that day, but she would always pull me aside and say, "Rebel is the name I called you."