Model and actress Emily Ratajkowski alleged in her new book that she was groped in 2013 by singer Robin Thicke during the filming for the hit song Blurred Lines, according to the Sunday Times of London.
The American supermodel, 30, alleges Thicke groped her bare breasts from behind during filming of the song’s video. It featured her and two other half-naked models, alongside American-Canadian Thicke, Pharrell Williams and rapper TI, who were all fully clothed.
The video and lyrics, which involve Thicke, 44, repeatedly singing, “I know you want it”, were accused of glorifying rape culture, leading to a ban in some nightclubs and university campuses.
In Ratajkowski’s upcoming book — “My Body,” which is set to be published on November 9 — she claims Thicke grabbed her bare breasts during the filming of the music video.
“Suddenly, out of nowhere, I felt the coolness and foreignness of a stranger’s hands cupping my bare breasts from behind,” she wrote, according to the Times.
“He smiled a goofy grin and stumbled backward, his eyes concealed behind his sunglasses. My head turned to the darkness beyond the set.” The model wrote that the director, Diane Martel, yelled out to her, asking “Are you OK?”
“I instinctively moved away, looking back at Robin Thicke. He smiled a goofy grin and stumbled backward, his eyes concealed behind his sunglasses. My head turned to the darkness beyond the set.”
Ratajkowski said Thicke’s actions made her feel “naked for the first time that day” but she had been “desperate to minimise” the incident.
“I pushed my chin forward and shrugged, avoiding eye contact, feeling the heat of humiliation pump through my body,” she said. “I didn’t react – not really, not like I should have.”
Diane Martel directed the video, and corroborated Ratajkowski’s allegations to the Times. “I remember the moment that he grabbed her breasts,” she told the Times. “One in each hand. He was standing behind her as they were both in profile.”
Both Ratajkowski and Martel claim Thicke was drunk at the time.
Martel told the Times the singer had been drinking, and apologized after the incident. She told the newspaper that she had taken measures to make sure women felt comfortable on set.
The director said she intended for the video to subvert power dynamics, placing the men in an inferior position as the women ignored and mocked them.
Ratajkowski said Thicke’s actions compromised any sense of female empowerment. She said: “With that one gesture, Robin Thicke had reminded everyone on set that we women weren’t actually in charge.
“I didn’t have any real power as the naked girl dancing around in his music video. I was nothing more than the hired mannequin.”
Blurred Lines attracted additional controversy in 2015, when a jury awarded Marvin Gaye’s children nearly $7.4m (£5.5m) after determining singer Thicke and Williams copied their father’s music to create the hit.
Thicke’s representatives have not responded to a request for comment, according to the Times.
