Back in January 1982, Kate Mulgrew, then 27, was on her way home after getting a few drinks with friends, when she encountered an attacker at the entrance of her Manhattan apartment building. Immediately, she felt something cold pressed against her neck, followed by a firm voice that ordered her to, "Get inside, now."

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Describing her attacker as a young man, with some bruises under his left eye and holding a knife in his right hand, Kate said that he forced her to go into the foyer, where he carefully looked at her. Kate tried to bargain with the man. She offered to give him her diamond necklace, her diamond ring, plus US$300 in cash. The man initially accepted the bargain, he placed the jewelry and money in his pocket, made his way to leave, but hesitated at the last minute.

"I saw the shift in his face," the 59-year old actress recalled the horrifying experience in her new book, "Born with Teeth." And almost told her attacker, "You do not have to do this."

But when you're attacked at knifepoint in your own home, Kate says that it's immediately your own survival that comes into focus.

Candidly, she courageously revealed that while she was raped, she just kept her eyes on him because she thought, "'if I just keep my eyes on him, he won't cut me. And he did not,'" Kate added.

Disappointedly, the attacker was never caught. And though that was the case, Kate, said that she never blamed the man because the attack was "absolutely impersonal."

Eventually, she was able to forgive the man who threatened her life but the road to forgiveness was not easy. After the incident, she spent a lot of time "staggering, stumbling and crying".

As for how she got over her terrifying ordeal, she said, "You have to fight your way through," because if you're resentful then you lose the fight and she makes it clear that she has "no intention of losing the fight."

Read more about Kate's experiences in her new book, "Born with Teeth: A Memoir" available now.

TagsKate Mulgrew, Rape, Born With Teeth, Born With Teeth: The Memoir