Kidnapped when she was 11-years-old while on her way to school, it’s been seven years since Jaycee Dugard was freed from abductors Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy.
Now, the 36-year-old has spoken about her two daughters who were fathered by Garrido while in captivity.
‘I’m so excited for them and so proud of all the challenges they have overcome,’ she told PEOPLE.
One is in college and the other is about to start.
In an excerpt from her second memoir, Freedom: My Book of Firsts, Dugard says: ‘My daughters are both so important to me, and I am so proud of who they are growing up to be.’
‘I’ve done my best to protect them over the years, just like any other mother would do for her kids.’
Explaining why she hasn’t included more about her daughters in her books, she writes, ‘I have chosen it to be this way for the simple reason that I believe they deserve the right to their own stories. One day if they want to, they can write them their way.’