Actress Alyssa Milano broke down in tears while sharing more details of her personal experience with sexual assault when she visited Sen. Susan Collins’ office in Washington D.C. Wednesday.
I told one of my #MeToo stories in @SenatorCollins office. I was with her constituent. We asked to speak with Senator Collins. She hid.
Here’s my story through a “human microphone”.
I’ll never know if she heard me.
*Trigger Warning* pic.twitter.com/i7awexXLfL
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) October 4, 2018
Milano then shared her own story, with her fellow protesters repeating what she said so Collins could hear every word.
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“When I was 19 years old, I was at a concert of a very famous pop star who told the crowd to get closer to her. This resulted in a stampede,” Milano said, notes The Blast. “People were smashed against each other. I couldn’t breathe. I thought I was gonna die. From behind me, I felt a hand up my skirt, and I was punched repeatedly in the vagina.”
The former Charmed star continued, “I couldn’t turn around. I looked to the stage, and I looked to the security guards, and I said, ‘Please help me.’ And they couldn’t help me. They shook their head. I managed to break free, and I climbed up the stage to get away from my predator.”
Milano said she did not come forward at the time of the assault because she could not identify the man who groped her.
“I couldn’t report because I didn’t know who it was to report. And I didn’t tell anybody because I didn’t know who it was to tell on. And I kept the secret just like Dr. Ford kept her secret for decades,” she said.
Milano previously came forward as a victim of sexual assault on Sept. 21 after #WhyIDidntReport became a trend on Twitter.
“Hey, [President Donald Trump], Listen the f– up,” Milano wrote. “I was sexually assaulted twice. Once when I was a teenager. I never filed a police report and it took me 30 years to tell me parents.”
Later, Milano published an op-ed on Vox, explaining why she did not speak up about the assault at first.
“It took me years after my assault to voice the experience to my closest friends. It took me three decades to tell my parents that the assault had even happened,” she wrote. “I never filed a police report. I never told officials. I never tried to find justice for my pain because justice was never an option.”
Milano, Busy Philipps, Sarah Hyland, Molly Ephraim and hundreds of other celebrities and women have shared their stories of sexual assault and harassment since Dr. Christine Basley Ford came forward to accuse Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault during a party in the early 1980s. Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, with Milano in the audience. Kavanaugh has denied all claims of sexual assault against him.
After Ford’s testimony, a FBI investigation was launched into the allegations, and the results were shown to senators in Washington Thursday, reports CBS News. Republicans have said it shows no corroborating evidence to support Ford and they could vote to confirm Kavanaugh as soon as Saturday. Democrats have criticized the report for being incomplete. Ford’s lawyers have said she was never interviews.
“We are profoundly disappointed that after the tremendous sacrifice she made in coming forward, those directing the FBI investigation were not interested in seeking the truth,” Ford’s attorneys said.
Photo credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
