Sheryl Lee Ralph says she was sexually assaulted by a ‘famous TV judge’
Emmy award winning actress, Sheryl Lee Ralph, has revealed that she was sexually assaulted by a “famous TV judge” at a work event.
According to the New York Post, Ralph made the shocking revelation and claimed the network executives who witnessed it years ago asked her not to report the attack because it would be “bad press.”
“This man walked in, grabbed me by the back of my neck, turned me around and rammed his nasty-ass tongue down my throat,” Ralph, 66, said on Monday’s “Way Up With Angela Yee” podcast episode. “And everybody at the network saw it.”
The New York Post reported that the “Abbott Elementary” star did not disclose when it happened or the “famous” TV judge’s name, However, she confirmed that it was not Judge Greg Mathis, as she called him “a great man.”
“I’m at a very public place. I was suited. I was handling my business for the television show I was on at that time,” she explained without naming the series. But noted, “we were on the same network.”
Following the alleged sexual assault, Ralph said, she called former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, who was in office from 1994 to 2002, to report the incident, the New York Post added.
She went on to say that Morial came to her defence without hesitation, saying, “You want me to send the police there right now? ‘Cause we will fix his you-know-what!”
She added that she was ready to hold the alleged assaulter accountable for his actions until “somebody on the network tapped me on the shoulder saying, ‘Please don’t.’ “
“They did not want any bad press around their show and did not care what just happened to me,” Ralph said.
“They saw what happened!” she said. ” ‘It’s not that bad, is it? Please don’t say anything, we don’t need the bad press, it’s a brand new show. Yours is a new show.’ “
Ralph mentioned that one bystander even said, “It wasn’t so bad after all, was it?”
“That’s the kind of stuff that happens,” Ralph continued. “That’s what makes it hard for women to speak up about these things.”
The publication also reported that Ralph said she was also sexually assaulted in a separate incident by a man she “didn’t know,” and admitted that the “horrible” experience made her question her own wardrobe.
“My skirt is at my knees. I have on a sweater blouse,” Ralph recalled. “It’s horrible. It’s like I can think about these things and I’ll tell you, it was like the third time something like this had happened to me, and I thought to myself, ‘What did I do to deserve that?’ What made this man think that he could just come over and put his hands on my body, in front of — he didn’t know me.”
Ralph said she eventually had the opportunity to confront her assaulter, who “did not remember any of this.”
“Years later, I was in a situation where that man walked through the door, and he sat down at the table across from me,” Ralph said. “I had to confront him about it. I had to let him know what he did that night.”