Lily Allen has given her first detailed account of being sexually assaulted by a music industry executive while she slept.
The singer-songwriter added her voice to the #MeToo movement in June, telling The i Paper that she had been sexually abused by a man in a position of significant power.
"My record label have a list of priority acts, pretty much all of which have a link to the person who did something to me," she said at the time. "I know what will happen. They’ll say, ‘Let’s try and get rid of Lily because this person is worth more to us because he makes us lots of money.’"
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Now Allen has shared her full version of events in upcoming memoir My Thoughts Exactly, due to be published on 20th September. The singer writes in the book that she doesn't name her attacker after being warned not to by her legal team.
In an excerpt published by The Guardian, Allen writes that after she got "smashed" at a party, the man took her back to his hotel room so she could sleep it off.
She recalls: "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."
Allen also writes that she consulted a lawyer for advice after the alleged incident and signed an affidavit document containing her account of what had happened.
"I expected him not to take advantage of my weakness," she adds. "I felt betrayed. I felt shame. I felt anger. I felt confused."
Allen, who released her fourth album No Shame in June, also writes that the music industry is "rife" with sexual abuse, claiming it trades in "a potent mix of sex, youth and availability", which creates a structure that "allows and sometimes even endorses toxic behaviour by men towards women".
If you have experienced sexual violence and are in need of crisis support, please call Rape Crisis on 0808 802 9999
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