Throughout the interview with The Times on Thursday, she was calm and collected ― though her voice quivered when she spoke of her three children. It is because of them, she said, that she decided to report Weinstein to the police.
At the time, she said she was too afraid, but did tell a priest, a friend and a nanny what had happened.
“I feel responsible that I didn't talk for years, I feel responsible that I didn't react that night and I didn't call the police, I feel responsible that I wasn't brave enough," she said. “All these years I’ve been thinking why I didn’t call the police immediately. I regret that I opened the [hotel] door.”
About a week before the Weinstein story broke, her high-school-aged daughter told her about how she had been experiencing mistreatment from a boy for seven months. To comfort her, she told her about the incident with Weinstein and urged her to report what was going on.
"If I need to do that, why don't you stand up for yourself?" her daughter said, she recounted. And she said her son told her: “You just need to be strong, Mom.”
Her attorney, Ring, one of L.A.’s top sex-abuse attorneys, said the woman is fully cooperating with the LAPD.
The model-actress, who was 34 at the time, is well-known in Italy, where she appeared on the cover of Italian Vogue and as an actress in Italian films.
The woman was living in Italy with her three children at the time of the alleged attack, but has since moved to Southern California.
The allegations could also bolster a New York police investigation into a report that Weinstein forced an aspiring actress in 2004 to perform oral sex on him, as the L.A. case involves similar acts. Lucia Evans told the New Yorker that Weinstein assaulted her during a meeting at his Miramax office.
Since a New York Times article first revealed allegations of sexual misconduct against Weinstein earlier this month, more than 40 women ― actresses, studio workers and models ― have accused Weinstein of inappropriate behavior, ranging from harassment to rape. Actresses Asia Argento, Rose McGowan, Lysette Anthony and Evans have all publicly stated that they were raped or forced to perform a sex act by Weinstein. An unnamed woman also told the New Yorker that he allegedly raped her. Eight women have received civil settlements over the years from Weinstein or his companies related to his conduct, the New York Times reported.
In other developments Thursday, a group of Weinstein Co. staffers responded to sexual harassment and assault allegations against their company’s disgraced co-founder, saying they did not know he was a “serial sexual predator.”
“We all knew that we were working for a man with an infamous temper. We did not know we were working for a serial sexual predator,” about 30 staffers said in a letter sent to the New Yorker. “We knew that our boss could be manipulative. We did not know that he used his power to systematically assault and silence women.”
The memo also blasted nondisclosure agreements in their contracts that some have blamed for helping to keep allegations under wraps for years.
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