Singer Marie Osmond's popularity has certainly risen since her appearance on last season's American reality-TV show, "Dancing With The Stars". It is no surprise then that a new book about the entertainer, "Marie Osmond: An Unauthorized Biography" is due out this July. The book by Utah writer Randy Jernigan makes several shocking claims, among them that Marie suffered from mental illness as a child, had an eating disorder as a teen, and that she had attempted suicide.

Jernigan writes in the new book that Osmond lost her virginity, at age 17, to the late singer Andy Gibb (younger brother of the Bee Gees). It also cites Marie finding ex-first husband Stephen Craig naked in a hot tub, with her personal assistant, as the reason for her divorce from him.

Jernigan also alleges that Marie fabricated claims of child abuse when the editors of her 2001 autobiography told her it needed to be spiced up. Jernigan told American tabloid Star magazine that, "It wasn’t true. She made it up, according to a lot of people I have spoken to. To this day, Marie has never explained what the actual abuse was."

Jernigan did not seek cooperation from Marie Osmond for the book, deciding that "If I worked with her, it [the book] would not be mine and not what I wanted." But Jernigan believes his unauthorized bio should be a big seller as a result of Marie's new-found public popularity; reportedly 500,000 copies have already been scheduled for publishing.

Randy Jernigan has written for a number of publications, including: The Star Magazine, Life and Style Weekly, USA Today, People, and The Chicago Tribune. He has also worked as a TV writer and producer for 48 Hours, 20/20, Hardcopy and Extra.