Christina Aguilera didn't feel 'safe and secure' growing up

Christina Aguilera had a rough start, growing up around family violence. Photo / Getty

Christina Aguilera's childhood was not "emotionally safe and secure".

The Fighter hitmaker - who has been publicly open about domestic abuse she witnessed between her father and mother when she was young - admits music was an "outlet" and praised its "therapeutic" nature.

"I definitely knew when I was going into making the decision to have children of my own, that I definitely would do my very best to make sure their environment was safe, that they were emotionally safe and secure, because those were the things that I didn't have growing up," she said.

"In turn, [that's] why I found music to definitely be my form of release and my outlet and therapeutic at times for me. Hopefully I'll instill a love of music in them in a joyful sense rather than having them need it as an escape."

The 34-year-old singer has partnered with HopeLine from Verizon to raise money for victims of domestic violence and is glad she is able to speak out about what is usually a "hush hush subject".

She added to Us Weekly magazine: "It's a subject that really hits home with me because I've always been pretty vocal and open about my own experiences in witnessing domestic violence in the home and neighbouring homes around me, so it was something that was pretty constant in my younger upbringing.

"It is a hush, hush subject. Not everybody likes to wear it on their sleeve and talk about it. It makes people uncomfortable and there's a lot of shame around it.

"But that's why for me, it's so important for me to speak my truth and helping others to find theirs and to find their own hope in a hopeless situation."

-Bang! Showbiz