Oscar-award winning Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o has revealed how she was sexually harassed by disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
In an opinion piece in the New York Times she says the revelations about Mr Weinstein’s alleged sexual assaults on other women have made it impossible “to avoid the memories resurfacing”:
“I have felt sick in the pit of my stomach. I have felt such a flare of rage that the experience I recount below was not a unique incident with me.”
Shortly after the film had started, he said he needed to show her something and led her into his bedroom “and announced that he wanted to give me a massage”.
“I thought he was joking at first. He was not. For the first time since I met him, I felt unsafe. I panicked a little and thought quickly to offer to give him one instead: It would allow me to be in control physically, to know exactly where his hands were at all times.”
A few months later, he invited her to a screen in New York, organising to meet at a restaurant.
Harvey arrived and the assistant immediately disappeared… Before the starters arrived, he announced: ‘Let’s cut to the chase. I have a private room upstairs where we can have the rest of our meal.’
They got up to leave without eating.
So we are done here,’ he said. ‘You can leave.’
