A former Miramax employee, Rowena Chiu, accused Harvey Weinstein on The Today Show this morning of trying to rape her in 1998. She had waited until now because of an NDA, which she says she was finally ready to break.
Although this is the first time she's spoken out about it publicly, journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor talk about her experiences in their upcoming book, "She Said."
Via HuffPost:
Chiu's story first appeared in journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor's upcoming book, "She Said," which tracks the reporting that led up to the Me Too reckoning in the fall of 2017. "She Said" hits stores this week.
In the book, Chiu describes struggling with depression and a suicide attempt in the 20 years since the assault. She told "Today" that she decided to break the non-disclosure agreement now because she simply hadn't been ready to speak up about her experience earlier.
"The NDA asked us to keep a secret about something that happened to me while I was working for 20 years, and that in itself was a very difficult thing to do," she said. "…When this story broke in the press about two years ago, I wasn't ready. … I felt intimidated. I felt terrified. I didn't know what the repercussions would be both legally and personally, and so it really has taken all of two years to square some of those things away both in terms of my own personal life, in terms of coming forward and speaking to my parents, speaking to my husband, speaking to my closest friends."
In the clip below, she describes a horrifying scene between her and the pig, and says, "He tried to rape me."
"Harvey [Weinstein] is very persistent. He has a tendency to cajole… he's a very big guy, he pushed me back against the bed and I was petrified and terrified as he tried to rape me," Rowena Chiu is a new Harvey Weinstein accuser who is speaking out for the first time. pic.twitter.com/YGn0wG5tR4
— 3rd Hour of TODAY (@3rdHourTODAY) September 9, 2019
