Ashley Judd was one of the first actresses to speak out against Harvey Weinstein during The New York Times investigation into the producer. She claimed that Weinstein sexually harassed her. Her bravery in speaking out sparked similar allegations from other actresses, including Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, reports Harper’s Bazaar.
Since Judd and over thirty other women spoke out against Weinstein, he has been fired from the company he co-founded and “denies many of the accusations as patently false,” according to Harper’s.
.@AshleyJudd on Harvey Weinstein encounter: “If I could go back retrospectively with a magic wand…I wish I could prevent it for anyone.” pic.twitter.com/1NbOgJELeM
— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 26, 2017
Judd sat down with Diane Sawyer for an in-depth interview with ABC News. She appears visibly emotional at the start of the interview, saying, “I didn’t expect that I would feel tearful, but it has been an absolutely, tremendously moving two in a half or three weeks,” reports Harper’s.
During the interview, Judd gives more details on the alleged sexual harassment. She claims that he invited her up to a meeting in his hotel room, where he asked to give her a massage, and then asked for her to give him one. She kept declining the advances. He then steered her towards a closet and requested that she watch him take a shower, reports Harper’s. She told Sawyer that she ended up saying she’d reconsider after she won an Oscar in one of his movies and “fled.”
She told Sawyer that she feels shameful over the interaction, but also that “it’s really okay to have responded however we responded.”
.@AshleyJudd on Harvey Weinstein: “What I’d say to Harvey is I love you and I understand that you’re sick…there’s help for a guy like you” pic.twitter.com/3mBkJQ8uMl
— Good Morning America (@GMA) October 26, 2017
Judd did tell people about the encounter, but was worried people wouldn’t believe her. She decided to confront him at an event, but Weinstein told he, “You know, Ashley, I’m going to let you out of that little agreement we made,” according to Harper’s. Judd said that since then, he “has spat my name at me ever since.”
Judd also addressed the problem of sexual harassment in other industries. And as for Weinstein, she says she will never forgive him, but believes “there is hope and help for everyone” as long as they admit to their wrongdoing.
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