‘Girls’ Star Jemima Kirke Reveals She Was Raped by a Drug Dealer

Jemima Kirka took to social media Thursday afternoon to reveal that she was sexually assaulted when she was 22. Kirke’s tweet came following Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony to a Senate Judiciary Committee about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’salleged sexual assault against her in the ’80s.

Kirke, who is best known for her role as Jessa Johansson on HBO’s Girls, commended Ford for testifying about her own assault. She tweeted, “I’m hugely grateful to this woman today.” Along with the tweet came a screenshot of a long note disclosing the sexual assault.

“OK, f— it. When I was 22 I was raped by my drug dealer. After I kindly asked him to leave (I didn’t want to make him angry), I dragged myself to the hospital. After the various STD tests, the doctor said sympathetically, ‘You gotta start looking after yourself.’ I believed what he meant was, ‘This could have been prevented if you weren’t hanging out with a drug dealer.’ It would seem that the responsibility was on me and for this reason I didn’t tell anyone and I didn’t report it,” Kirke wrote. “I was ashamed because I believed that what had happened to me was a result of having very little self-worth, that this was what happens to drug addicts.”

“This is wrong,” she explained.

“My rape had nothing to do with my choices. Drug dealers don’t rape people any more than a family man does. The rehab counselors didn’t correct that belief. My own mother didn’t correct it. F— anyone who meant well but told me to look at this ‘as a sign’ that I needed help,” she continued. “It is likely that my daughter will one day be sexually assaulted. I can’t prevent that. She can’t prevent that. But no matter what the circumstances, it won’t be her fault.”

She also clapped back at a Twitter user who asked her, “What exactly about this is brave?”

“Who said I was being brave, Sarah?” Kirke replied, calling her “a bit silly” for asking that question. “I don’t think anyone is trying to be self-congratulatory here, Sarah. Being ‘brave’ really isn’t the point. For me, it’s an effort to be supportive and to lead the younger generation by example in hopes that they won’t accept rape as anything but a crime against them.”

Kirke isn’t the only celebrity who came forward Thursday, thanking Ford for her testimony. Actress Busy Philipps revealed that she was raped when she was 14 years old. In her Instagram post, she shared a throwback photo of herself at that age.

She captioned the photo, “#tbt This is me at 14. The age I was raped. It’s taken me 25 years to say those words.”

She added that she wrote about it in her upcoming book, This Will Only Hurt a Little, but had only recently told her family about it. “I wrote about it in my book. I finally told my parents and sister about it 4 months ago,” she said. “Today is the day we are silent no more. All of us. I’m scared to post this. I can’t imagine what Dr. Ford is feeling right now.”

Both Ford and Kavanaugh testified in the hearing Thursday. The committee is expected to vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination confirmation Friday.