Emily Ratajkowski reveals why she didn’t share alleged sexual assault allegations against Robin Thicke sooner
Emily Ratajkowski has spoken candidly about her reasons for not speaking out against Robin Thicke sooner, revealing that she was worried about the impact the alleged assault allegations would have on her career.
In an excerpt from her upcoming book My Body, the supermodel accused the singer of sexually assaulting her during the filming of the music video for his 2013 song Blurred Lines.
“Suddenly, out of nowhere, I felt the coolness and foreignness of a stranger’s hands cupping my bare breasts from behind,” the 30-year-old model writes in an excerpt shared by The Sunday Times. “I instinctively moved away, looking back at Robin Thicke. He smiled a goofy grin and stumbled backward, his eyes concealed behind his sunglasses. My head turned to the darkness beyond the set.”
In the excerpt, Ratajkowski also recalled how she was “desperate to minimise” the incident, which she said occurred while Thicke was drunk, and how she “didn’t react - not really, not like I should have”.
While speaking with People about the alleged assault during an event on Monday night, the model said that she didn’t come forward with the allegations sooner because of concerns over her career.
“I was an unknown model and if I had spoken out or complained, I would not be where I am today, I would not be famous,” the model said.
As for why Ratajkowski decided to speak publicly about the incident now, she told the outlet that she credits her growth and changes in perspective, as well as the “evolution” of her politics.
“I wrote a book about the evolution of my politics and that includes a lot of different experiences from my career and my life and the way that I felt and thought about those experiences have evolved,” she continued. “I hope people are able to read the essay and understand the nuance behind these kinds of situations.”
While speaking with the outlet, Ratajkowski also expressed her hope that sharing her story can help other women who have found themselves in similar situations, before acknowledging the existence of a “sort of a double-edged sword” when women want to “capitalise” off their image.
“I think all women, we all play the game, capitalising off of your image, commodifying their body, that’s the world that we live in and I would never tell a woman that she shouldn’t but I also would hope that they understand that that’s sort of a double-edged sword,” she said.
In The Times, the Blurred Lines video director, Diane Martel, recalled witnessing the incident on set and “screaming” at Thicke over his behaviour.
“I screamed in my very aggressive Brooklyn voice: ‘What the f*** are you doing, that’s it!! The shoot is over!!’” she told the outlet, recalling how Thicke had then “sheepishly apologised”.
Although Ratajkowski decided to continue with filming, she said that Thicke’s behaviour “reminded everyone on set that we women weren’t actually in charge”.
Reflecting on the incident with People, the I Feel Pretty star, who recently gave birth to her and husband Sebastian Bear-McClard’s son, said that her focus is now on teaching her son and changing the way “we think about women and men”.
The Independent has contacted representatives for Thicke for comment but has not heard back.
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