Minnie Driver has revealed for the first time that she was sexually assaulted as a teenager. The star opened up about the traumatising experience during an appearance on Sirius XM's StandUP! With Pete Dominick this week.
"When I was 16, I was on vacation in Greece, and this guy kinda elbow-grabbed me, and said, 'You're going to dance with me'," the actress recalled. "I said no, and I pulled my arm away from him, and he grabbed the back of my hair. I tried to kick him, and then he punched me."
Minnie Driver has revealed she was sexually assaulted as a teenager
Minnie, 46, later corrected her statement, and said the incident had occurred when she was 17 – but shockingly revealed that when she reported it to the authorities, she was told she was the one to blame.
"The way [the police] presented it was, 'This guy was just having a good time and if you'd gone along with it, it would've been fine. If you'd just danced with him you wouldn't be in this position that you're in now'," she said.
The mother-of-one then told her host she believes victim-blaming is why many young women choose not to speak up.
The actress believes victim-blaming is the reason many women do not speak out
"The times that you would sanction it, because you would believe when you're young, when you're 17, 18, going out, the idea that unwanted male attention is something that you're supposed to put up with because it is somehow your role that a guy can come and touch you, he can put his hand way too far down the small of your back… and that that's alright," she commented.
"That you can be shepherded, herded, touched, mauled. I think young women, they've been belittled when they've said something."
After sharing her anecdote, Minnie confessed that there's not one woman she knows who "has not had one form of sexual assault at some point in their life".
"Whether it's being manhandled, whether it's being pushed around, or whether it's actually physical aggression or indeed being raped – I know way too many women," she said.