Reese Witherspoon says a director sexually assaulted her when she was 16

The actress recounted the incident during a speech at Elle's Women in Hollywood event

The actress recounted the incident during a speech at Elle's Women in Hollywood event

Reese Witherspoon says a director sexually assaulted her when she was 16

The actress recounted the incident during a speech at Elle's Women in Hollywood event

While speaking at Elle's Women in Hollywood event on Monday night, Reese Witherspoon shared her own experiences with sexual assault and harassment in Hollywood and said that she'd been sexually assaulted by a director when she was 16. "I have my own experiences that have come back to me very vividly, and I found it really hard to sleep, hard to think, hard to communicate a lot of the feelings I’ve been having about anxiety, about being honest, the guilt for not speaking up earlier or taking action," she said, referencing the many stories about harassment that have come out in the past week. " true disgust at the director who assaulted me when I was 16 years old and anger that I felt at the agents and the producers who made me feel that silence was a condition of my employment."Reese went on to say that the incident that occurred when she was 16 was only one of "multiple experiences of harassment and sexual assault" that have happened during her career. "I don’t speak about them very often, but after hearing all the stories these past few days and hearing these brave women speak up tonight, the things that we’re kind of told to sweep under the rug and not talk about, it’s made me want to speak up and speak up loudly because I felt less alone this week than I’ve ever felt in my entire career," she said. You can read her speech in full here. Reese's speech came after a week in which the New Yorker and the New York Times published stories about the multiple sexual harassment and assault allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein. In the days following those stories, actresses including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Cara Delevingne accused Weinstein of harassment, and many more women began sharing stories of harassment and assault on social media using the phrase, "Me too."

While speaking at Elle's Women in Hollywood event on Monday night, Reese Witherspoon shared her own experiences with sexual assault and harassment in Hollywood and said that she'd been sexually assaulted by a director when she was 16. "I have my own experiences that have come back to me very vividly, and I found it really hard to sleep, hard to think, hard to communicate a lot of the feelings I’ve been having about anxiety, about being honest, the guilt for not speaking up earlier or taking action," she said, referencing the that have come out in the past week. "[I feel] true disgust at the director who assaulted me when I was 16 years old and anger that I felt at the agents and the producers who made me feel that silence was a condition of my employment."

Reese went on to say that the incident that occurred when she was 16 was only one of "multiple experiences of harassment and sexual assault" that have happened during her career. "I don’t speak about them very often, but after hearing all the stories these past few days and hearing these brave women speak up tonight, the things that we’re kind of told to sweep under the rug and not talk about, it’s made me want to speak up and speak up loudly because I felt less alone this week than I’ve ever felt in my entire career," she said. You can read her speech in full .

Reese's speech came after a week in which the and the published stories about the multiple sexual harassment and assault allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein. In the days following those stories, actresses including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Cara Delevingne accused Weinstein of harassment, and many more women began on social media using the phrase, "Me too."

��vlog