All About Minka Kelly's Parents Maureen Kelly and Rick Dufay

Minka Kelly is opening up about her parents, Maureen Kelly and Rick Dufay, in her memoir, Tell Me Everything.

In the new book, out May 2, the actress gets candid for the first time about her traumatic childhood.

"My childhood was colorful and chaotic, unstable and inconsistent, unpredictable and hard a lot of the times," Minka told PEOPLE ahead of the memoir's release. "But the silver lining is that it made me a very adaptable person."

The former Friday Night Lights star was raised by her mother, Maureen, an exotic dancer at the Crazy Girls strip club in Los Angeles. Her father is a French-American guitarist, who most famously performed with Aerosmith in the early 1980s; Minka built a relationship with her dad later in life.

Minka grew up watching her mom try to make ends meet as she faced addiction and domestic violence. When she was 17, the actress performed in peep shows at an adult video store in Albuquerque, determined to support herself after growing up shuttled between family, friends and acquaintances when her mom left her for weeks and months at a time.

"I started with the scariest part," she says of her memoir. "The part that I carried the most shame about, the part that I felt the most embarrassed of, the part that I hid my whole life, and the part that I've had people make me feel bad about. And I felt like that was just where I had to be the most brave."​​

The actress wrote her memoir with the hope that it can help others who "might have complicated relationships with their mothers feel less alone," adding she wants others "to know that we don't have to be a victim of our circumstance."

Here's everything to know about Minka Kelly's parents, Maureen Kelly and Rick Dufay.

Maureen Kelly and Rick Dufay met at a recording studio

In 1979, Maureen Dumont Kelly met guitarist Rick Dufay at a recording studio in Los Angeles.

They had a short-lived, casual romance which led to a pregnancy. Maureen wanted to keep the baby, but Dufay was about to go on tour with Aerosmith and wasn't ready to be a full-time father, so the pair went their separate ways.

Maureen gave birth to Minka in 1980

Minka Kelly was born on June 24, 1980. She was raised by her single mother and did not grow up knowing her father.

"My mom was on her own for a very long time so she was just surviving and doing her best and maybe not totally well-equipped to have and raise a child," Minka told PEOPLE. "But she did it anyway because she wanted me and she loved me to the best of her ability."

The Parenthood actress spent part of her childhood in L.A., where she and her mom struggled with poverty. At one point, they stayed in a 125-foot storage shed of an apartment complex after not being able to pay rent for their unit.

Minka and Maureen moved from L.A. to Albuquerque

Despite a brief rekindling with Dufay, Maureen began a tumultuous off-and-on-again relationship with another man.

The Euphoria star wrote that her mom worked as a dancer in the Philippines for a bit, at which time Minka lived with a family friend as the work trip kept extending.

"I later learned that during that time, she drove a car across the border for [her boyfriend], transporting drugs," Minka wrote of her mom, according to Page Six. "She got caught and went to jail for a short period of time, but she never told me."

Not long after, the mother-daughter duo moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to live with Maureen's boyfriend's extended family. Minka attended middle and high school in Southwest City. In her memoir, Minka alleged that Maureen's boyfriend had beaten her and noted that she and her mother also lived among his other girlfriends.

Maureen worked as an exotic dancer

While they lived in L.A., Maureen worked as an exotic dancer at the strip club Crazy Girls. Maureen often took her young daughter with her when she worked, and Minka recalled that if her mom "made a lot of money that night, we'd go grocery shopping at 2 a.m."

Minka knew by age seven that her life was "different," telling PEOPLE, "I spent a lot of my youth wishing my mom was something she wasn't, wishing she was like the other moms. I only was able to really appreciate how special she was when I got much older. In fact when it was maybe a little too late."

Looking back, she now sees Maureen as "the most beautiful, free-spirited, big-hearted, deeply loving human I've ever known."

"She was very childlike and playful and a lot of fun, and that's how I remember her," Minka said. "I probably would've described her differently when I was younger, but in hindsight, they become angels."

Minka's dad Rick is a former Aerosmith guitarist

Born in Paris in 1952, the French-American guitarist was best known for his time with Aerosmith from 1981 to 1984.

Before joining the band, Dufay released a solo album, 1980's Tender Loving Abuse, which was produced by Jack Douglas. Shortly after, Douglas recommended the musician as a replacement for Aerosmith's rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford. Dufay stayed with the band through 1984 after suggesting to lead singer Steven Tyler that he reunite with Whitford.

Minka moved to L.A. and tried to reconnect with her dad

When she was a toddler, Minka's parents tried to make things work, but she wrote on Instagram in 2018 that "they just weren't compatible," noting she and her mom "went our separate ways and lived our separate lives."

Years later, after Minka escaped a toxic relationship with her first boyfriend, which resulted in an abortion and a coerced sex tape, she moved to L.A. to reconnect with her dad.

"I used to be really angry at him for not being there for my younger years, but I think that everything happens as it's supposed to," Minka told PEOPLE.

She initially moved in with Dufay, and he helped her find her footing before she got her own place in the city. Minka worked as a scrub nurse while modeling and acting on the side, getting her first big break on NBC's Friday Night Lights.

Minka previously wrote on Instagram about how long it took to build a relationship with her father.

"We met up a few times through the years but never really knew each other until I got older and was able to see the situation for what it was and was able to let go of any grudges," she wrote in 2018. "Our parents are human after all. When I was ready, he was there. It was a very bumpy road to start but we found our way. Thank god for therapy. We still drive each other nuts sometimes but I can honestly say that I'm not sure where I'd be without him today."

Minka watched her mom deal with addiction and abusive relationships

Minka wrote that she grew up watching her mother deal with addiction and domestic violence. The tumultuous childhood shaped the Charlie's Angels actress's life in many ways, including how she handles her own romantic relationships.

Though she doesn't name any of her former romantic partners in the book — she's been linked to stars like Chris Evans, Derek Jeter and Trevor Noah — she did discuss how her upbringing affected her dating life.

"I've learned that I have operated in a lot of my relationships as a scared 16-year-old girl," she told PEOPLE. "Most of the time these relationships reveal the parts in us that need healing. You recreate the chaos that you might have experienced in your childhood because you go to what's familiar and you'll do it over and over again until you become aware of it and do what it takes to heal. So I'm a work in progress, I think like a lot of women out there."

Minka also shared that she hopes to start a family one day after previously suffering a miscarriage. "To have my own kids would be a wonderful gift if the time comes," she said.

Minka was estranged from her mom for years until Maureen's cancer diagnosis

Maureen weaved in and out of Minka's life into her early 20s, but they didn't become estranged until Maureen asked for more financial support.

They only rekindled their relationship after Maureen was diagnosed with colon cancer and given two years to live. During that time, Dufay provided Minka with a lot of emotional support.

"When [my mom] got sick, she and I were not on speaking terms. I didn't want to be burdened with her anymore," she recalled. "I wanted to live my life, and I was mad at her for being irresponsible and not taking care of herself. I just didn't want to believe it."

In order to heal, a therapist suggested that Minka confront her mother about her upbringing.

"I saw her start to crumble in shame and regret and pain when she was already in so much of all of those things, and I just immediately thought, 'I don't need to do this to her,' " Minka recalled. "I only need to forgive her and love her. She's already broken. What is the point of pouring salt on the wound? I'm fine. I just want to take care of her right now."

At the end of her life, Maureen was in a hospice facility in Albuquerque. Minka crawled into her mom's bed and wrapped her arms and legs around her and held her as she died. Maureen died of cancer in 2008 at age 51.

One of Minka's biggest regrets is not spending her mom's last Thanksgiving together, but she had been working at the time. "Because that was her favorite holiday, and she really wanted me to be there," she said. "I just was like, 'Ah, I'll see you for the next one,' knowing deep down there wasn't going to be another. And I think about that a lot. That still breaks my heart."

Minka and her dad are still working on their relationship

Though Minka and her father are much closer now than they were when Minka was younger, the Titans star told PEOPLE that they were "still working on a lot of" their relationship issues.

"I'm still working on making peace with him," she said. "I love my dad so much. I think that he is so wise and he is so smart, and he's wonderful in so many ways and helped me navigate living in L.A. and going through this business in a way that I need maybe him more now than I did when I was younger. We're good friends now, and I'm glad he's here."

Minka is also working on healing from the psychological trauma of her difficult upbringing.

"There have been times, I have to be honest, when I've been mad at her for having birthed me," she wrote in her memoir. "I didn't ask for all this. I didn't ask for this trauma and for the struggle to earn enough to pay for the tons of therapy I've needed to heal these wounds. I didn't ask for these complicated relationships."