This week, Emmy Award-winning, Jamaican actress Sheryl Lee Ralph revealed that she was sexually assaulted by a well-known television judge. The revelation was made during an interview with Angela Yee, a famous American media personality best known from her time on the popular, widely syndicated morning radio show, The Breakfast Club.
Ralph was on Yee’s new show, Way Up, promoting her latest book, DIVA 2.0: 12 Life Lessons From Me For You, when she undisclosed details about two situations where she was touched inappropriately and urged to keep quiet, while working as an actress in Hollywood.
“There was one incident where 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,” Ralph said.
She continued by saying that she confronted her abuser after running into him years later.
“He sat down at the table across from me. He did not remember any of this, but I had to let him know what he did that night… He was right there, I had to confront him about it. Do you want to know what was the shocking part? Everybody around the table was appalled that I would stand up for myself. They were appalled. They told me I should be ashamed of myself, and why would I even bring that up,” she shared.
Ralph then shared an instance where she had been sexually assaulted by a well-known TV judge, but made it clear that it was not Judge Mathis.
She recalled that while in studio for a television show she was on at that time, the man walked in, grabbed her by the back of her neck, turned her around, and “rammed his tongue” down her throat, adding that it was done in front of everyone at the network.
She said she contacted the mayor of New Orleans at the time, which was Marc Morial. While Morial was willing to jump in and help, she said that the network execs told her to remain silent about the incident.
“Do you know that they did not want any bad press around their show and did not care what just happened to me… That’s the kind of stuff that happens… That’s what makes it hard for women to speak up about these things,” Ralph added.
Ralph then implored other women in Hollywood who would have gone through similar situations to speak out and tell the truth.
“Do not carry the burden of that pain. Especially if it’s something you feel you cannot work through,” Sheryl Lee Ralph said.
