Brooke Shields has revealed that she was raped when she was in her early 20s, but was too ashamed to tell anyone at the time.
The actress, 57, told the dark story in her new documentary, Pretty Baby, which explores abuse of young, vulnerable people in Hollywood.
Shields, a child star, appeared in the film Pretty Baby aged 11, and appeared naked with 29-year-old Keith Carradine.
At 15, she appeared in two more films, Blue Lagoon and Endless Love, that included sex and nudity.
In the documentary, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday, Shields told of being attacked shortly after graduating from Princeton in 1987.
Brooke Shields has revealed that she was raped in 1987 (left), when she was 22. She is seen right on Friday at the premiere of her documentary, in which she discusses the attack
Destined for Hulu later this year, Pretty Baby explores how Shields was sexualized early on in her career as a child growing up in the worlds of fashion and Hollywood
Detailing the rape for the first time, Shields says in the documentary that she was trying to get back into Hollywood after attending Princeton, and had dinner with a man she knew to talk about potential projects, according to Entertainment Weekly.
The man – who Shields does not name – then invited her to come back to his hotel and call a taxi.
‘I go up to the hotel room, and he disappears for a while,’ she said.
She said there was a pair of binoculars in the room, and she picked them up to watch some volleyball players out of the window.
He then returned to the room naked, and attacked her.
‘I put the binoculars down and he’s right on me. Just like, was wrestling,’ she said, explaining that she didn’t fight out of fear.
‘I was afraid I’d get choked out or something.
‘So, I didn’t fight that much. I didn’t. I just absolutely froze.
‘I thought one ‘No’ should’ve been enough, and I just thought, ‘Stay alive and get out,’ and I just shut it out.
‘God knows I knew how to be disassociated from my body. I’d practiced that.’
Shields, 57, is seen on Friday at the premiere of her new documentary Pretty Baby at the Sundance Film Festival
She said she left the hotel after the attack, got in a cab and ‘cried all the way to my friend’s apartment.’
She said it took her years to come to terms with what had happened.
‘He said to me, “I can trust you and I can’t trust people.” It’s so cliché, it’s practically pathetic,’ she said.
‘I believed somehow I put out a message and that was how the message was received.
‘I drank wine at dinner. I went up to the room. I just was so trusting.’
She said she wrote to her attacker years later, but he never responded.
Shields, a mother of two, is pictured on January 8 at a gala in New York City
‘I just threw my hands up and said, ‘You know what, I refuse to be a victim because this is something that happens no matter who you are and no matter what you think you’re prepared for or not,” she said.
‘I wanted to erase the whole thing from my mind and body and just keep on the path I was on.
‘The system had never once come to help me. So, I just had to get stronger on my own.’
The two-part documentary is directed by Lana Wilson, who is best known for helming Taylor Swift’s 2020 Netflix documentary Miss Americana.
The revealing film will reportedly also look back on Brooke’s first marriage to tennis star Andre Agassi, her turbulent relationship with her alcoholic mother, Teri, and her own struggles with motherhood.
It will be available on Hulu later this year.
