Emily Ratajkowski breaks her silence on Robin Thicke assault claims
Emily Ratajkowski reveals she didn’t speak out about Robin Thicke sexual assault claims at time of the Blurred Lines video over fears it would damage her career: ‘I was an unknown model and I would not be famous today if I had complained’
- Ratajkowski, now 30, accused Thicke, now 44, of groping her bare breasts while they were shooting the video for his controversial hit Blurred Lines in 2013
- She made the allegations in her upcoming book, My Body, claiming that he was ‘a little drunk’ on the set and that he ‘cupped her bare breasts’ from behind
- The video’s director, Diane Martel, confirmed she witnessed the incident and screamed ‘What the f*** are you doing’ at Thicke, who then became ‘sheepish’
- Ratajkowski has broken her silence on the claims for the first time, revealing that she waited to speak out over fears about how it would impact her career
- She added that her decision to publish her bombshell allegations now came as a result of her personal ‘evolution’ and her changing view of the experience
- Thicke has yet to publicly address the controversy and his representatives have not returned repeated requests for comment
Emily Ratajkowski has revealed that she waited almost ten years to publicly accuse Robin Thicke of sexually assaulting her on the set of his Blurred Lines video out of fear that ‘complaining’ about the singer would damage her career and her dreams of becoming ‘famous’.
The 30-year-old supermodel has accused Thicke, 44, of groping her bare breasts while they were filming the music video for his controversial hit back in 2013, publishing her claims in an upcoming book, My Body, and alleging that the singer was ‘a little drunk’ when he ‘cupped’ her chest with his hands.
Ratajkowski’s recollection of the assault was made public on Saturday and she has now broken her silence on the controversy for the first time, telling People that she kept quiet about the incident for so many years because she was an ‘unknown model’ at the time and didn’t want to do anything that might ruin 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,’ she told the publication at an event on Monday night.
Speaking out: Emily Ratajkowski has broken her silence on her bombshell allegation that Robin Thicke sexually assaulted her on the set of his Blurred Lines music video in 2013
In an excerpt from her upcoming book My Body, Ratajkowski, 30, alleges that Thicke, 44, groped her bare breasts while they were filming the music video for his controversial hit
She added that her decision to speak out about Thicke’s behavior came as a result of her personal ‘evolution’, saying: ‘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.
‘I hope people are able to read the essay and understand the nuance behind these kinds of situations.’
Ratajkowski’s comments on the incident come days after UK-based publication the Sunday Times published her bombshell allegations about Thicke, who has yet to speak out about the accusations.
Recalling the incident in her book, Ratajkowski says the duo were standing alone on the set, with the model appearing naked from the waist up.
According to the model, who was relatively unknown at the time of the video shoot, Thicke appeared to get ‘a little drunk’ during filming, which caused his behavior on-set during the shoot – which was done with an all-female team – to change.
Then, when the pair were shooting a scene together, she says that ‘out of nowhere’ she felt someone’s hands ‘cupping her bare breasts’, before turning around to realize the person was Thicke.
‘Suddenly, out of nowhere, I felt the coolness and foreignness of a stranger’s hands cupping my bare breasts from behind,’ alleges the model-turned-actress.
‘I instinctively moved away, looking back at Robin Thicke.’
Ratajkowski claims the singer-songwriter ‘stumbled backward’ and smiled at her, before the set director – who noticed what had happened – stepped in.
‘He smiled a goofy grin and stumbled backward, his eyes concealed behind his sunglasses,’ she writes.
‘My head turned to the darkness beyond the set. [Director Diane Martel’s] voice cracked as she yelled out to me, “Are you okay?”‘
In the book, Ratajkowski says she felt ‘the heat of humiliation pump through’ her body after the alleged fondling and suddenly ‘felt naked for the first time that day.’
The supermodel says she didn’t speak out in the moment saying she felt ‘desperate to minimize’ what happened.
‘I pushed my chin forward and shrugged, avoiding eye contact, feeling the heat of humiliation pump through my body,’ the book reads.
‘I didn’t react – not really, not like I should have.’
Ratajkowski, who tied the knot with Uncut Gems producer Sebastian Bear-McClard in 2018 and gave birth to their first child Sylvester Apollo Bear in March, says she is speaking out years later as she didn’t let herself come to terms with what had happened at the time.
She says she was then reminded of the alleged sexual assault when she noticed Thicke had blocked her from Instagram.
In her book, the supermodel claims the R&B star was a ‘little drunk’ when he sexually assaulted her on set
DailyMail.com has reached out to representatives for Thicke and Ratajkowski for comment. Multiple attempts by the Times to contact Thicke’s reps were also unanswered.
Set director Martel confirmed Ratajkowski’s account of the incident in the Times’ report.
‘I remember the moment that he grabbed her breasts, one in each hand,’ she told the paper.
‘He was standing behind her as they were both in profile. I screamed in my very aggressive Brooklyn voice, ‘What the f*** are you doing, that’s it! The shoot is over!”
According to her, Thicke had been drinking and ‘sheepishly’ apologized after the alleged groping incident and acted as if he was ‘contrite’.
‘As if he knew it was wrong without understanding how it might have felt for Emily,’ she said.
Martel said she believes Thicke’s actions were spurred by his drunken state.
‘I don’t think he would have done this had he been sober,’ she said.
Martel said she halted the shoot and told the record company it was over but the alleged victim ‘said we could go on’.
The director described Ratajkowski as ‘very professional’ and ‘the star of the video.’
‘We kept on and Emily was phenomenal. She’s really the star of the video,’ she said.
‘She’s fully mocking him and the male gaze with her beautiful shape and ferocious energy.
‘She’s playful, not seductive. And quite hilarious.’
However, she lamented that Thicke’s actions undermined the feeling of female empowerment she had hoped to create on the set.
The aim had been to flip the gender power roles on their heads with semi-naked women spurning the advances of the men.
‘With that one gesture, Robin Thicke had reminded everyone on set that we women weren’t actually in charge,’ she said.
‘I didn’t have any real power as the naked girl dancing around in his music video.
‘I was nothing more than the hired mannequin.’
Thicke is currently signed to Roc Nation, the record label and management agency founded by Jay-Z in 2008 – however the company has yet to issue a comment on the controversy.
At the time of the video shoot, Thicke was married to actress Paula Patton, with whom he shares an 11-year-old son, Julian Fuego Thicke.
The two separated in 2014, and Patton cited in her divorce filing his alleged abuse toward her, as well as drug abuse and infidelity as reasons for their separation. Much like Thicke and Geary, Patton has kept silent about the accusations against her ex-husband.
While her allegations in My Body mark the first time Ratajkowski has spoken out about the alleged groping incident, the 30-year-old has described the Blurred Lines video as the ‘bane’ of her ‘existence.’
‘I wasn’t into the idea at all at first. I think I came off as a bit annoyed in the video,’ she admitted in a 2015 profile for InStyle UK.
‘Now, it’s the bane of my existence. When anyone comes up to me about Blurred Lines, I’m like, are we seriously talking about a video from three years ago?’
This isn’t the first time Thicke has been accused of groping a woman.
In 2013, a socialite posted a photo of the married singer groping her butt on her Instagram page at a party following the MTV VMAs. Thicke’s wife was also at the party at the time.
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