Content warning: This article discusses sexual assault and domestic abuse in a way that may be distressing to some readers.
Model and actress Emily Ratajkowski has alleged that Robin Thicke groped her without consent while shooting the "Blurred Lines" music video in 2013.
According to The Sunday Times, Ratajkowski details the alleged sexual assault in her upcoming book, My Body, which is due to be published next month.
"Suddenly, out of nowhere, I felt the coolness and foreignness of a stranger's hands cupping my bare breasts from behind. I instinctively moved away, looking back at Robin Thicke," Ratajkowski writes.
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"He smiled a goofy grin and stumbled backward, his eyes concealed behind his sunglasses. My head turned to the darkness beyond the set. [The director, Diane Martel’s] voice cracked as she yelled out to me, 'Are you okay?'"
Ratajkowski also writes that at the time, she was "desperate to minimise" what happened, adding: "I pushed my chin forward and shrugged, avoiding eye contact, feeling the heat of humiliation pump through my body. I didn't react — not really, not like I should have."
Director Diane Martel told The Sunday Times that she recalled the alleged incident. "I remember the moment that he grabbed her breasts. One in each hand. He was standing behind her as they were both in profile," she said.
Recalling her reaction at the time, Martel added: "I screamed in my very aggressive Brooklyn voice, 'What the fuck are you doing, that's it!! The shoot is over!'"
Martel also said that Thicke "sheepishly apologised for the alleged assault "as if he knew it was wrong without understanding how it might have felt for Emily".
According to the BBC, Thicke has yet to respond to a request for comment.
Both the song "Blurred Lines" – which features the lyrics "Nothing like your last guy/ He don’t smack that ass and pull your hair like that"– and its accompanying music video were accused of promoting rape myths soon after they were released in 2013.
Katie Russell, a spokesperson for Rape Crisis, told The Independent in 2013: "Both the lyrics and the video seem to objectify and degrade women, using misogynistic language and imagery that many people would find not only distasteful or offensive but also really quite old fashioned.
"More disturbingly, certain lyrics are explicitly sexually violent and appear to reinforce victim-blaming rape myths, for example about women giving 'mixed signals' through their dress or behaviour, saying 'no' when they really mean 'yes' and so on."
If you or anyone you know has experienced sexual or domestic violence and is in need of support, please call 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), the National Sexual Assault Domestic Family Violence Service.
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