Model and actress Emily Ratajkowski alleges in her upcoming book that singer-songwriter Robin Thicke groped her in 2013 while filming the video for “Blurred Lines.”
“Suddenly, out of nowhere, I felt the coolness and foreignness of a stranger’s hands cupping my bare breasts from behind,” she wrote in “My Body,” set to be released Nov. 9. “I instinctively moved away, looking back at Robin Thicke.”
An excerpt of the book was published by The Sunday Times.
“He smiled a goofy grin and stumbled backward, his eyes concealed behind his sunglasses,” Ratajkowski, 30, wrote. “My head turned to the darkness beyond the set. [The director, Diane Martel’s] voice cracked as she yelled out to me, ‘Are you okay?’ “
A representative for Ratajkowski said she had no further comment when reached by NBC News on Monday. Representatives for Thicke could not be reached for comment.
Ratajkowski and two other women appeared topless in the uncensored version of the video which featured Thicke, rapper T.I. and musician and producer Pharrell Williams. The song was a huge commercial success and received two Grammy nominations. But it was also controversial for lyrics such as “I know you want it.” Critics said the song was misogynistic and encouraged sexual assault.
The Sunday Times spoke to Martel, who told the British newspaper she approached Thicke after the alleged incident.
” ‘What the f— are you doing?” she said she recalled asking him. “That’s it!! The shoot is over!!'”
She also said Thicke apologized “as if he knew it was wrong without understanding how it might have felt for Emily.”
Copyright credit for “Blurred Lines” also drew a protracted legal fight.
Members of Marvin Gaye’s family sued Thicke and Williams, along with T.I., in 2013 for copyright infringement of Gaye’s 1977 hit song “Got to Give It Up.”
In a 2014 deposition, Thicke said he lied for a year about his role writing the biggest hit of his career. Thicke said he was too high on Vicodin and drunk on Vodka to contribute anything to the 2013 song of summer, which was co-written by Williams and T.I.
Thicke said in the deposition he didn’t recall doing any sober statements during the biggest year of his career.
“I had a drug and alcohol problem for the year and I didn’t do a sober interview so I don’t recall many things that I said,” he said.
In 2015, the Gaye family won their case.
A judge in 2018 ordered Thicke and Williams to pay almost $5 million to Gaye’s estate in the case’s final ruling.
Williams in 2019 told GQ magazine that he was embarrassed by the song.
“Some of my old songs, I would never write or sing today. I get embarrassed by some of that stuff. It just took a lot of time and growth to get to that place… I think ‘Blurred Lines’ opened me up. I didn’t get it at first,” Williams said.
He added: “And then I realized that there are men who use that same language when taking advantage of a woman, and it doesn’t matter that that’s not my behavior. Or the way I think about things. It just matters how it affects women. And I was like, Got it. I get it. Cool. My mind opened up to what was actually being said in the song and how it could make someone feel.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. The hotline, run by the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN), can put you in contact with your local rape crisis center. You can also access RAINN’s online chat service at https://www.rainn.org/get-help.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
