Jana Kramer Opens up About Her Manager’s Sexual Misconduct

Jana Kramer is opening up about her experience with sexual misconduct. The country music singer and One Tree Hill alum revealed that she nearly gave up her dreams of pursuing a career in the entertainment industry after one of her former managers made unwanted advances.

“The reason why I haven’t said anything is it’s just one of those things where it’s hard to talk about,” she told Yahoo.

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“I had a man helping me in the very beginning when I was 19, and he was like, ‘OK, I’ve done this for you. What are you going to do for me?’” Kramer said. “And I remember in that moment being like, ‘Oh, my God! I am going to have to sleep with this man in order to fulfill my dreams.’ I ended up just bawling, crying, and having a panic attack, and he left.”

“I called my mom and I was like, ‘I’m coming home. I’m going back to Michigan.’ And she’s like, ‘The hell you are!’ She said, ‘Don’t let a man try and take something away from you like that. Be the bigger person. Fight back.’”

Taking her mom’s advice, Kramer decided to stick it out after finding a new manager. However, the experience had a deep impact on her.

“I’ll never forget that,” she says, “how easy it is for something like that to happen and for me to think ‘I can’t do this,’ and then they win.”

The 33-year-old singer came forward after a flood of sexual assault and misconduct allegations surfaced against Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein.

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“With a big name like Harvey, women feel silenced and they are afraid to come out because they don’t want their careers affected,” Kramer said. “Also you kind of just feel gross about it and ashamed about it, and you are like, ‘Was it me? Did I do something?’”

“The Harvey stuff is difficult,” she continued. “Unfortunately, it’s not the first case and it’s not going to be the last.”

One way that Kramer is trying to fight back against sexual misconduct is by becoming an ambassador for female-run Little Black Dress Wines. She also volunteers for an organization called Dress for Success which provides networking support, professional attire and development tools to help women be successful in and out of a workplace environment.

“I love empowering women, especially women that need help and encouragement, to make them feel better and make them feel beautiful,” Kramer said.

“I feel like women can be just brutal to each other,” she continued. “They can really tear each other down. So to be able to empower women to have a voice, to be able to speak out and to be confident with themselves and not to have to settle for anything and feel like that’s what they deserve, is just wonderful to be a part of.”