Lily Allen, 39, said she felt ‘invisible’ after being sexually assaulted by a man she worked with and claimed that things were ‘put in place’ to protect the attacker
Lily Allen has said she felt “invisible” after she was sexually assaulted and has criticised the music industry for protecting her alleged attacker.
The “Smile” singer claims she was targeted by a colleague while working abroad, but said she felt “unsafe” as after the shocking incident, the unnamed perpetrator was allowed to go about his business. The 39-year-old mum said the attacker still works in the music industry.
After being asked on the Miss Me? podcast whether she was protected by people around her in her music career, Lily waived her right to anonymity and replied: “No. I was sexually assaulted by someone that I worked with. The incident happened abroad. By the time that I wanted to deal with it, I’d left that country.
“But I wanted people that were sort of mutuals who knew him and knew me and worked with both of us to know that this thing had happened. I made it known in some ways and nobody put anything in place to protect me or what had happened to me.
“In fact it felt like quite the opposite was done in that things were put in place to protect him. And that made me feel very unsafe. I felt pretty invisible to be honest, it was, it was really horrible.”
Lily previously explained that the attack took place on a work trip to the Caribbean in 2016. Speaking on BBC’s The Next Episode podcast, she claimed that the attacker told her: “Well, why don’t you sleep in my bed while I go and get the keys or whatever.” She continued: “So I passed out in his bed. The next thing I knew, I woke up and he was in my bed naked, slapping my bum.”
Lily says she was drunk at the time of the alleged attack and said “All I can tell you is what I do remember,” but she claims she woke up with someone that she trusted and in a position that she really did not want to be in. She added: “I made a decision, I didn’t want to go to the police. I didn’t want to make a fuss and I wanted to keep it quiet. I remember thinking about his mum and how she would deal with the news that her son was a sexual predator and I was prioritising everybody else in this situation except for myself.”
When asked if she thinks the music industry has a problem with sexual abuse, Allen replied: “Yes I do. I think that the music industry has a problem, but I also think the world has a problem with it. And, I think it’s something that traditionally victims of this sort of abuse are encouraged not to talk about it.”
Many high profile female performers have spoken out about abuse in the music industry, reported the Daily Star. Brit Awards sensation Raye penned her song Ice Cream Man about a sick producer who targeted her as an up-and-coming artist in his music studio.
Speaking about the song on her debut album, she said: “As a woman in and out of this industry, I’ve been through a lot of nasty, traumatic things that I bottled up, didn’t talk about, buried. I didn’t feel like there was a place that I could put it. There’s still a lot of healing that needs to take place there. Sadly, more than one man and more than one time in my life.”
One-third of women in the music industry have been sexually harassed at work, a damning report found earlier this year. Women are also eight times more likely to face discrimination than men, according to the first-ever UK Musicians’ Census.
If you’ve been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999
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