When model and actress Brook Shields was in her 20s, she already had a successful career, and she was also a recent graduate from Princeton University. Both are huge accomplishments, but her life was anything but picture perfect.
Shields recently shared with PEOPLE that she had a very difficult experience in her 20s. At the time, her career was at a low point, and a Hollywood executive took advantage of that.
According to Shields, she had a dinner meeting with the executive, and afterwards, he convinced her to go with him to his hotel room. She thought she was going to his room so she could use the phone to call a taxi. That wasn’t what the executive had in mind. Once they were there, he sexually assaulted her.
She referred to herself during the experience as being “totally detached” or feeling like it was “a dream.” We’re assuming she meant more of a nightmare type dream.
After the experience, she didn’t want to believe it was true and tried to convince herself it didn’t actually happen. In fact, she pretended it never happened for all these years. Only now, 30 years later, she is finally telling her story.
At the time, Shields didn’t think anyone would believe her if she told them what happened. She also felt like the experience must have been her fault. Shields explained, “It’s taken me a long time to process it.” She added, “I’m more angry now than I was able to be then.”
Shields shared that a big part of why she’s discussing all of this now and realizing how important it is to discuss is because of her daughters. She said, “I don’t want them to feel the shame that I’ve lived with for so long.”
Learn more about why Shields didn’t share her sexual assault experience previously and learn more about her upcoming documentary, “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,” in the video below.
Does it surprise you that it took Shields 30 years to finally feel ready to share that she had been sexually assaulted earlier in her career? Does it surprise you that she blamed herself for a long time?
