The sexual assault claims against men in Hollywood continues as actress Kristina Cohen comes forward with her own traumatic experience. In a Facebook post, she recounts how Ed Westwick raped her three years ago.
At the time, she was dating a producer who was friends with Ed. One night the producer took her to Ed’s house where they met for the first time. Kristina writes, “I wanted to leave when Ed suggested ‘we should all f*ck.’ But the producer didn’t want to make Ed feel awkward by leaving.” Because Kristina felt uncomfortable, she said she was tired and wanted to leave but Ed proposed that she take a nap in the guest room.
She continues, “So I went and laid down in the guest room where I eventually fell asleep, I was woken up abruptly by Ed on top of me, his fingers entering my body. I told him to stop, but he was strong. I fought him off as hard as I could but he grabbed my face in his hands, shaking me, telling me he wanted to f*ck me. I was paralyzed, terrified. I couldn’t speak, I could no longer move. He held me down and raped me.”
The reason she kept quiet after the incident was because the producer made her believe that coming forward would ruin her career and that she didn’t want to be ‘that girl.’ However, she said, “I now realize the ways in which these men in power prey on women, and how this tactic is used so frequently in our industry, and surely, in many others.”
After the Facebook post started circulating, Ed released a response on Twitter denying the allegations.
Kristina’s goal coming forward with her experience is to show the imbalance of power, “I hope that my stories and the stories of others help to reset and realign the toxic environments and power imbalances that have created these monsters.”
Photo courtesy of Vanity Fair
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