Lily Allen has opened up about a time she was sexually assaulted (Picture: Getty)
Lily Allen has opened up about a time when she was sexually assaulted by a man she was working with.
The singer, 39, detailed on the Miss Me? podcast with Miquita Oliver that she was shocked to find that when the incident took place, her mutual friends rallied to protect her attacker.
‘No. I was sexually assaulted by someone that I worked with. The incident happened abroad. By the time that I wanted to deal with it, I’d left that country,’ she revealed.
‘But I wanted people that were sort of mutuals who knew him and knew me and worked with both of us to know that this thing had happened. I made it known in some ways and nobody put anything in place to protect me or what had happened to me.
‘In fact, it felt like quite the opposite was done in that things were put in place to protect him. And that made me feel very unsafe. And also that my frame of reality was very distorted and I felt pretty invisible to be honest, it was, it was really horrible.
Miquita thanked her for sharing this horrible incident and added that it’s ‘important’ for people to share these stories.
Lily has been a big name in the British music industry for years (Picture: Charles Sykes/REX/Shutterstock)
This isn’t the first time Lily has spoken about this incident. In her book My Thoughts Exactly she detailed the event, explaining it happened in the Caribbean in 2016.
She detailed: ‘I woke up at 5am because I could feel someone next to me pressing their naked body against my back. I was naked, too. I could feel someone trying to put their penis inside my vagina and slapping my arse as if I were a stripper in a club.
‘I moved away as quickly as possible and jumped out of the bed, full of alarm … I found my clothes quickly … and ran out of his room and into my own.’
She also spoke about the incident on BBC’s The Next Episode podcast. ‘We got to my hotel. I couldn’t find my room keys. So he was like, “Well, why don’t you sleep in my bed while I go and get the keys or whatever.” So I passed out in his bed. The next thing I knew, I woke up and he was in my bed naked, slapping my bum.’
Lily said that he could feel him trying to have sex with her.
‘All I can tell you is what I do remember,’ explaining that she was drunk when the incident took place.
The singer is married to David Harbour (Picture: Adela Loconte/Shutterstock)
In the interview with The Next Episode, she revealed that she chose not to go to the police at the time in a decision that ‘prioritised everyone but herself’.
‘I made a decision, I didn’t want to go to the police. I didn’t want to make a fuss and I wanted to keep it quiet. I remember thinking about his mum and how she would deal with the news that her son was a sexual predator and I was prioritising everybody else in this situation except for myself.’
She then was asked if she thought there was a problem with sexual abuse in the music industry.
To this, she replied: ‘Yes I do. I think that the music industry has a problem, but I also think the world has a problem with it. And, I think it’s something that traditionally victims of this sort of abuse are encouraged not to talk about it.’
Victim Support
Victim Support offers support to survivors of rape and sexual abuse. You can contact them on 0333 300 6389.
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