TV star and influencer GK Barry has opened up about being raped aged 17 by an older boss.
The TikTok sensation, who rose to online fame during the pandemic, is known for her sarcastic, dry humour and hilarious stories.
However, behind the hilarious podcast host persona is a trauma she’s never shared until now.
GK, real name Grace Keeling, 27, has spoken out about her sexual assault to send an important message to other women, particularly her young audience, saying it’ll be ‘worth it’ if it helps ‘even one of them’.
The I’m A Celebrity campmate had previously told just five people, including her parents and girlfriend, what she went through and vowed to move on, pretending it didn’t happen.
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Now, in an interview with Fabulous magazine, Grace has explained that she decided to write about the harrowing experience in her new book, It’s Giving Life.
The social media personality said: ‘I always thought rape was someone in a dark alleyway jumping out at you – but it wasn’t like that at all.’
She recalled that the rape happened during her second year of college during her work experience, with the manager she was reporting to (who was 10 years her senior) once offering to drive her in when she couldn’t get a lift.
Grace pens in her book that he kept ‘touching [her] leg’ and making her ‘uncomfortable’, noting that there was a major ‘power imbalance’ and she didn’t feel able to ask him to stop.
Instead of taking her to the office, he drove them to an empty park, where he demanded she give him oral sex.
‘I didn’t know what else to do except go along with what he was telling me. Resisting or fighting back felt like it might make things worse,’ she said.
‘There was never a moment in my mind where I thought I could say no to what was happening. I was only 17 and scared. I wasn’t able to process the situation and think logically.’
Grace continued her work experience, fearful that quitting would mean she wouldn’t get into university after failing her course.
Then, on her final day, the then-teenager was taken to a room by her manager, who had already told everyone else to go home.
He locked the door and told her to remove her jeans, assaulting her and leaving her bleeding and in pain.
‘Rape. It’s taken me 10 years to realise that’s what it was.’
Grace ‘blamed [herself]’ after the attack and had found it ‘flattering’ that the ‘good-looking guy’ was giving her attention.
‘I kept thinking, “I should have said no firmer”,’ she said.
‘It was make-or-break for me going to uni, which at that age felt like a huge deal. I thought, “I just will never tell anyone about this”.’
Over time, Grace has been able to ‘come to terms’ with the fact that it ‘shouldn’t have happened’.
She also felt compelled to speak out a year later when she learnt that another girl from her college was going to the same place for work experience, certain that it would ‘happen to her’ too.
Though she found it more traumatic having to ‘relive it’ 12 months on when a teacher was informed.
Due to her age, the college had to tell her parents, and then they reported the rape to the police.
Grace can still ‘remember so clearly’ the moment she had to tell her mum, who was ‘in shock’ but ‘didn’t blame’ her daughter. She then told Grace’s dad, but ‘to this day’, Grace herself has never spoken to him about it directly.
Sadly, a few days later when she spoke to a female police officer, she was told that there was ‘very little point’ taking matters further due to a lack of ‘evidence’.
The officer told Grace it was her word ‘against his’, and since she had been texting the man, it was likely to appear ‘black-and-white’, making it harder to secure a conviction.
While Grace ‘understood what she was saying’, she was never reassured.
‘At no point did she say that he had done anything wrong.’
Grace wasn’t offered any further support, she says a decade later, nor did she seek therapy to process the horrific incident.
Still, she has found it ‘helpful’ to open up, particularly to her partner of two years, footballer Ella Rutherford, 26, who responded by telling her the rape was ‘not [her] fault’.
What to do if you’ve been raped
If you have been the victim of rape, either recently or historically, and are looking for help, support is out there.
- If you have recently been raped and you are still at risk, ring 999 and ask for the police. Otherwise, the first step is to go somewhere you are safe.
- If you want to report your rape to the police, ring 999 or the police non-emergency line on 101. An Independent Sexual Violence Advocate (ISVA) will often be on hand to help you through reporting and even after you have made a statement, you can still decide to withdraw from the criminal justice process at any time.
- If you plan on going to the police, if possible, do not wash your clothes or shower, bathe or brush your teeth. If you do get changed, keep the clothes you were wearing in a plastic bag. These steps will help to preserve any DNA evidence your attacker may have left on your body or clothes.
- If you don’t want to contact the police, Rape Crisis suggest talking to someone you trust about what has happened; or you can ring one of the UK’s many rape and sexual assault helplines.
- Anyone aged 16+ can contact Rape Crisis’s 24/7 Support Line by calling 0808 500 2222 or starting an online chat.
- If you have been injured, you’re best advised to go to your nearest A&E to seek medical treatment. If you are uninjured, you can go to your nearest Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC). The NHS has information on where to find your nearest centre here.
- If your rape is historic, you can still access support, including from the police – there is no time limit on reporting and your account can still be used as evidence.
Read more here.
‘I think the perception is that rapists are creepy men lurking in the dark, but actually most rapes happen with people you know or are friends with, and that makes it so much harder,’ Grace concluded in the interview.
‘It’s not all men, but it is always men. The majority of women have some experience of being letched over, all the way up to serious offences.’
Following her almost overnight rise to popularity during lockdown, self-deprecating content creator Grace has gone on to become a household name.
As well as her Saving Grace podcast, with which she’s toured the country, she became the youngest regular panellist on ITV’s Loose Women.
In 2024, she finished fifth in I’m A Celebrity and will next be seen as a co-host of Big Brother: The Group Chat alongside Kate Lawler when the social experiment returns in autumn.