I was victim of sex attack, says Penny Lancaster
Model wife of Rod Stewart breaks down on live TV as she reveals harrowing assault after drink spiked
Penny Lancaster, the model and television personality, broke down during a live programme as she disclosed that a senior fashion industry figure sexually abused her in her late teens. Ms Lancaster said she had just started modelling and was still a virgin when she was drugged and attacked.
PENNY LANCASTER, the model and television personality, broke down in tears on Loose Women yesterday as she disclosed she was subjected to a serious sexual assault by a senior fashion industry figure while in her late teens.
Ms Lancaster said she had just started out on her modelling career – and was still a virgin – when she was drugged and abused.
Ms Lancaster, 46, the wife of the singer Sir Rod Stewart, found herself face down on the man’s bed with him on top of her after her drink was spiked.
Her disclosure, made on the live ITV daytime programme will intensify pressure on the fashion business over claims that sexual harassment and abuse has been widespread.
A number of models have been encouraged to speak out against sexual predators in the industry in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. One model has collected almost 80 accounts of harassment, including rape, and is planning to expose a number of senior fashion industry figures.
Ms Lancaster said she had been a virgin at the time of the attack and had gone to the man’s house on a promise that he would take her to a fashion industry event. She was in her late teens and had left school at the time of the attack, almost 30 years ago.
“I was like ‘oh, someone will be interested, I might get some more work’,” Ms Lancaster said. “And that’s what you’re out there doing the modelling for, so I went with him. And he said: ‘Oh, I have to stop at my apartment’.”
The man poured her a drink, telling her he needed to collect some possessions to take with him to the event.
“Unfortunately the next thing I knew, which I don’t really remember, I found myself face down on a bed with him on top of me,” she recalled. “He was a guy that I had worked with and he promised me to meet other people and so I was naive and I trusted him.”
She said she hoped to encourage young girls to understand that being a victim of sexual assault was “not their fault”. She said: “They are not guilty. The other person is. And they need to be brave enough to tell the authorities.”
Nicholas Young, her agent, said Ms Lancaster did not tell her parents about the assault at the time, adding that she had not intended to make the disclosure on television but was “drawn into the discussion” on Weinstein.
♦ Sir Tom Jones has said sexual harassment is rife in the music industry and told how he was targeted by a sexual predator at an early stage in his career.
Sir Tom, 77, told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Afternoon Edition: “Things have always happened in the music industry as well. There’s been people complaining about publicists and different things they’ve been expected to do to get a record contract, just like a film contract.
“What’s tried on women is tried on men as well.”
Of his own experience, he said: “It wasn’t bad… it was a question and I said ‘No thank you’.”
Vernon Hopkins, a bass player, alleged in 2009 that Sir Tom had been subjected to a sexual advance by Joe Meek, a record producer.