By, Rosa Doherty
2 min read
ByRosa Doherty, Rosa Doherty
Joan Collins has revealed that she suffered a horrific sexual assault when she was 17.
The 81-year-old actress made the revelations in ‘Brave Miss World’, a documentary made by Israeli Miss World Winner and rape victim Linor Abargil.
Ms Collins explained in the film how she was drugged and raped by the man whom she later married, Maxwell Reed.
The actress described how a date with Irish actor Maxwell Reed (who died in 1974), turned nasty when he went to take a bath and left her a rum and coke to drink and some books to read.
She said: “The books were porn, which I’d never seen before. Hardcore porn. The next thing I knew, I was out flat on the sofa in that living room and he was raping me. And what he had given me was a drug. He had drugged my drink.
“It was what is called in those days a Mickey Finn. Which I think today would be Rohypnol. It felt so horrible. That I'd done this thing.”
The actress spoke of her guilt, that led her to eventually marry Mr Reed, she said: “It wasn’t my fault but I didn’t know, I went out with him.
“And maybe I shouldn’t have gone out with him. He was much older than me, and he was a famous star.
“After I'd been going out with him for a few months, he asked me to marry him.
“And I thought, ‘well I better because you know, he took my virginity’. I really hated him, but I was so filled with guilt, that he had done this thing to me.
“It took a long time to be able to really trust any man.”
In the documentary, Ms Abargil, 34, meets fellow victims of rape and sexual violence.
Ms Abargil was raped in 1998 weeks before she was crowned Miss World, and she has made it her life's mission to encourage other women to speak out.
She said: “It was very emotional to hear how Joan had felt so guilty about losing her virginity to this older man who had drugged and raped her, that she felt she had to marry him.
“She was so young at the time, and she entered into an abusive marriage. The post-rape circumstances are very different for a rape victim than for any other crime.
“We automatically try to minimize the impact of the abuse, which is something that is often not understood by police or society.
“A rape victim may not feel safe or able to report for a very long time.”
The mother of three has since found religion and says she has learnt so much from the experience. “It made me grateful to live in Israel, where I was able to convict my rapist.
“In India, in Pakistan and many other countries in the Middle East, if a woman spoke out about sexual violence she would be treated like a criminal herself.
“Those are the places where there is still so much to be done.”
