My parents tried to shield me from how famous they were when I was growing up on Long Island. I had no idea.

We weren't poor growing up on Long Island, but it wasn't lavish - just a regular middle-class house.

Growing up in Rhode Island, my friends would have strung me up if I had been a Yankees fan.

You know, growing up, I lived in a neighborhood in Long Island where there was basically one black family. And I remember hearing all the parents and the kids in the neighborhood say racist things about this family.

When people see what I have now, they have no idea of where I came from and how I didn't have anything growing up.

Oh", she thought, "how horrible it is that people have to grow up-and marry-and change!