Emily Ratajkowski accuses Robin Thicke of groping her breasts while shooting 'Blurred Lines'
Emily Ratajkowski says Robin Thicke groped her bare breasts while shooting the music video for his controversial 2013 hit “Blurred Lines.”
In an excerpt from the supermodel’s upcoming book “My Body” (out Nov. 9), Ratajkowski, 30, alleges that the incident occurred when Thicke, 44, returned to the set “a little drunk.” The passage was reported Saturday by The Sunday Times of London. USA TODAY can confirm that the allegations appear in Ratajkowski’s book.
Ratajkowski, who appears topless alongside two other scantily clad models in the video with Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I., describes her shock in the moment.
“Out of nowhere, I felt the coolness and foreignness of a stranger’s hands cupping my bare breasts from behind,” she writes. “I instinctively moved away, looking back at Robin Thicke. He smiled a goofy grin and stumbled backward, his eyes concealed behind his sunglasses.”
Ratajkowski remembers “avoiding eye contact, feeling the heat of humiliation pump through my body.”
USA TODAY has reached out to Thicke’s and Ratajkowski’s representatives for comment. Neither star has acknowledged the allegations on social media.
20 fall books we can't wait to read: By Katie Couric, Billy Porter, Jonathan Franzen and more
The music video’s director, Diane Martel, told The Sunday Times she witnessed the moment. “I screamed … ‘What the (expletive) are you doing? That’s it, the shoot is over!” Thicke apologized, Martel told the news outlet: “I don’t think he would have done this had he been sober.”
Ratajkowski wrote that the experience made her feel “naked for the first time that day” and “I didn’t react – not really, not like I should have.”
Nor did any of the other women on the set, she said. “Despite how many of us were there and how safe I’d felt in their presence, we were in no position to hold Robin Thicke accountable on the set of his music video. We were working for him, after all.”
Baby news! Emily Ratajkowski welcomes 'beautiful' first child with husband Sebastian Bear-McClard
“Blurred Lines” spent 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was named the song of summer by Billboard, USA TODAY and other publications. Amid the #MeToo movement, questions were raised about whether the song’s lyrics pertained to consent.
In 2018, a copyright infringement claim brought against Thicke and Williams awarded $5.3 million to the family of Marvin Gaye, who said the song copied Gaye’s 1977 single “Got to Give It Up.”
'I'm out': Robin Thicke teases a 'Masked Singer' exit after this panelist's shocking guess
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Emily Ratajkowski alleges Robin Thicke fondled her on 'Blurred Lines'