Natalie Wood’s Sister Alleges Hollywood Legend Sexually Assaulted Late Actress

Natalie Wood’s sister, Lana Wood, wrote in her new memoir that Kirk Douglas sexually assaulted the actress in 1955 when Wood was still a teenager. It has been rumored for decades that Douglas sexually assaulted the West Side Story star, but the rumor was never confirmed before Douglas died at 103 last year. Lana wrote about the allegation in Little Sister, in which she also wrote about her older sister’s death in 1981.

“I remember that Natalie looked especially beautiful when Mom and I dropped her off that night at the Chateau Marmont entrance,” Lana wrote in the book, reports the Associated Press. The meeting was arranged by their mother, Maria Zakharenko. According to Lana, their mother believed that “many doors might be thrown open for her, with just a nod of his famous, handsome head on her behalf.”

The meeting went on for a “long time,” Lana wrote. When Wood finally emerged from the hotel, she “looked awful. She was very disheveled and very upset, and she and Mom started urgently whispering to each other,” Lana wrote. “I couldn’t really hear them or make out what they were saying. Something bad had apparently happened to my sister, but whatever it was, I was apparently too young to be told about it.” Wood did not talk about the alleged incident with Lana until they were adults, Lana wrote. After describing going into Douglas’ hotel suite, Wood told her sister, “And, uh … he hurt me, Lana,” she wrote.

“It was like an out-of-body experience. I was terrified, I was confused,” Lana, who was 8 years old in 1955, wrote. Wood and their mother believed it would ruin the actress’ career if she publicly accused Douglas. “Suck it up,” Zkharenko told her daughter, according to Lana’s book. Since Douglas died last year, Lana felt it was appropriate to write about the alleged incident. “With no one still around to protect, I’m sure she’ll forgive me for finally breaking that promise,” she wrote.

When asked to comment on the situation, Douglas’ son, actor Michael Douglas, provided only a brief statement. “May they both rest in peace,” he said through his publicist. Douglas did write about meeting Wood in his 1988 memoir The Ragman’s Son. He remembered her asking if he could sign her jacket when they met at a red light. “As I obliged, the woman who was driving got out and introduced her. ‘This is my daughter. She’s in movies, too. Her name is Natalie Wood.’ That was the first time I met Natalie,” Douglas wrote. “I saw her many times afterward before she died in that cruel accident.”

The allegations that Douglas sexually assaulted Wood trended on Twitter after his death last year. When Douglas was honored during the Golden Globes in 2018, viewers also brought up the allegations on Twitter. In a 2017 book, Douglas’ wife Anne Douglas wrote that she knew her husband was often unfaithful. “Kirk never tried to hide his dalliances from me,” Anne wrote in Kirk and Anne: Letters of Love, Laughter and a Lifetime in Hollywood. “As a European, I understood it was unrealistic to expect total fidelity in a marriage.” Lana’s book Little Sister will be released on Tuesday.