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Brooke Shields opened up about being sexually assaulted in her twenties in a new interview with People to discuss his upcoming documentary. The 57-year-old actress revealed she was afraid people wouldn’t believe her at the time, which is why she didn’t open up about her experience until the new documentary. Brooke Shields: Pretty Babywhich will be released on Hulu on April 3. “Doing the documentary, you all see it together, and it’s a miracle that I survived,” she told the outlet.
Brooke said that over time she was able to process what happened and find the strength to talk about it, after worrying that “no one [was] will believe her” at the time. “People didn’t believe those stories back then. I thought I would never work again,” she said. “I’m angrier now than I could have been back then. If you’re scared, you rightly are. These are scary situations. They don’t have to be violent to be scary.
The Blue Lagoon The actress said she was at the “lowest point of my career” and had recently graduated from Princeton. She said she had dinner with an executive thinking she had gotten “a movie, a job”, when he invited her to his hotel room to call a cab, and in the room she alleged that he assaulted her. Brooke said she “didn’t fight” and “just froze.” She later revealed that she had “dissociated”.
Brooke revealed that she wanted to share her story now to help others who may have had similar experiences. “Everyone processes their own trauma on a different timeline. I want to be a lawyer so women can speak their truth,” she told the magazine.
Brooke’s sexual assault experience was first reported when the documentary aired at the Sundance Film Festival in January. Reports on the screening said Brooke did not name her attacker and she never publicly confronted him.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted and needs help, please call 800.656.HOPE (4673) to be connected with a trained staff member at a sexual assault service provider in your region.
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