Little House star news reveals a family secret.

Alison Arngrim, who played Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie, claims she was physically and sexually abused. In fact, the “Little House” star channeled her anger and hurt through the character who was the rival to Laura Ingalls.

“When you live with abuse, you have a lot of rage and anger, and I had a place to actually take it and vent it as Nellie,” Arngrim said in a statement. “It’s done me so much good, I can’t even describe it.” The experience has inspired her to get involved with the National Association to Protect Children, which lobbies for laws to protect children.

Arngrim, 48, kept the abuse at the hands of a family member secret and is only now telling it to a wider audience through her new book, “Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated.” She said the abuse started when she was 6 and ended before she took on the role of Nellie, but the effects of the abuse stayed with her a long time.

“This is something that’s happening to millions of people… sexually abused and physically abused,” Arngrim said. An actress and stand-up comic now, Arngrim was 11 when she took on the role of Nellie in 1974. She continued in the role as her character grew up and got married in 1981.