Naya Rivera reveals she had an abortion during Glee

Glee type TV Show network Fox genre Comedy

Music

In her new memoir Sorry Not Sorry, Naya Rivera opens up about several hard times in her life, including her battle with anorexia and having an abortion while she was on Fox’s Glee.

In 2010, Naya Rivera broke up with actor Ryan Dorsey to focus on her career. However, a few weeks after ending things, she discovered that she was pregnant with his child, she reveals in an excerpt published in PEOPLE. Rivera decided not to tell Dorsey, her current husband and the father of her 11-month-old-son Josey, and had an abortion on her day off from filming the Fox musical series.

“It was very scary to open up about everything,” she says in the excerpt. “It’s not something a lot of people talk about, but I think they should. I know some people might read it and say, ‘What the Hell?’ But I hope someone out there gets something out of it.”

The 29-year-old also speaks about how she stopped eating while trying to cope with her parents splitting at a time when her acting career stalled. According to PEOPLE, she didn’t realize the severity of her eating disorder until she started writing the book.

“I was so young and it just seemed to be the norm. Everyone was going through similar stuff,” she tells the magazine. “I had no way of knowing if I was going through it worse. I was juggling my feelings and it makes me sad that there are girls still going through that 15 years after I went through it.”

Rivera played cheerleader and glee club member Santana Lopez for six seasons on Glee. Since the show ended in 2015, she has appeared on Devious Maids and lent her voice to an episode of American Dad.

Read more about Sorry Not Sorry on PEOPLE.com.