Brooke Shields Reveals She Was Sexually Assaulted 30 Years Ago
Brooke Shields is revealing that she was sexually assaulted by a powerful Hollywood executive in the ’90s. In her upcoming two-part documentary on Hulu early next month, the actress revisited her sexualized roles with People. She also discusses how she was treated by the higher-ups of Hollywood.
The 57-year-old Pretty Baby actress, who didn’t think anyone would believe her at the time, was scared she would never work again. She told the publication that it was a “miracle” that she survived. “It’s taken me a long time to process it,” Shields says of the assault that occurred in her 20s. “I’m more angry now than I was able to be then. If you’re afraid, you’re rightfully so. They are scary situations. They don’t have to be violent to be scary.”
The Blue Lagoon star described this point of her acting career as the lowest. After getting dinner with an unnamed Hollywood executive in which Shields thought she was getting a movie job, he invited her to make a “call for a cab from his hotel room.” There, he assaulted her. “I didn’t fight,” Shields says. “I just froze.” As a result, she blamed herself and nitpicked every mistake she made that night at dinner. “It was really easy to disassociate because by then it was old hat,” she recalls. “And because it was a fight-or-flight type of choice. Fight was not an option, so you just leave your body. ‘You’re not there. It didn’t happen.'”
From that point, Shields found it easier to shut herself off by disassociating from her body and sexuality. Now, 30 years later, she wants to share her experience to “advocate for women to be able to speak their truth.” On her journey, she says with a smile, “I always kept going, like a bull in a china shop.… I will not be defeated.”
Brooke Shields: Pretty Baby premieres on April 3 on Hulu.
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