French actor Gerard Depardieu reveals prostitution past

French actor Gerard Depardieu listens during a news conference in Riga August 28, 2014. (Reuters)

In French actor Gerard Depardieu's new autobiography, the 65-year-old revealed his shocking and troubled past including a stint in prison as well as his time as a prostitute.

Among Depardieu's confessions, he recalls his mother's repeated tale of her attempts to abort him, telling her son "And to think I almost killed you."

Depardieu, who rose to fame for his role in the 1990 romantic comedy "Green Card" alongside Andie MacDowell, wrote that his family was so poor he began to work as a prostitute at the young age of 10.

"I've known since I was very young that I please homosexuals," he wrote in his autobiography "It Happened Like That" (Ce c'est fait comme ca). "I would ask them for money."

He also admitted to helping an acquaintance dig up newly buried bodies in cemeteries to steal their shoes and jewelry.

At 16, Depardieu writes that he spent three weeks in jail for stealing a car and later become a pick pocket, stealing watches and money from students in the May 1968 anti-government protests in France.

Writing of his later life after becoming of a father, he describes his children's want to disassociate from him simply stating, "'What do you want? Change your name, for heaven's sake, if it bothers you."

He also writes of his friendship with Russian president Vladmir Putin.

"It's very easy," he said of writing letters to Putin. "I speak, there's a guy who taps it out in French then translates it into Russian and it arrives on Putin's desk. I send him letters that tell him about everything. He's like an old chum. It amuses him and he replies."

The controversial actor said in a recent interview that he drinks "12, 13, 14 bottles" of wine a day without getting completely wasted.

"I can’t drink like a normal person. I can absorb 12, 13, 14 bottles…per day," the 65-year-old Depardieu told So Film while promoting his upcoming movie "Welcome To New York." "But I’m never totally drunk, just a little pissed. All you need is a 10-minute nap and voilà, a slurp of rosé wine and I feel as fresh as a daisy!"