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Minnie Driver Reveals She Was Physically Assaulted as a Teen, Claims Police Blamed Her

Minnie Driver revealed in a new interview that she was physically assaulted at the age of 17. The Speechless actress, now 46, recalled the scary incident during SiriusXM’s Stand UP! with Pete Dominick on Tuesday, October 11.

“I was on vacation in Greece, and this guy kinda elbow-grabbed me, and said, ‘You’re going to dance with me,'” she said. “I said ‘no’ and I pulled my arm away from him, and he grabbed me by the back of my hair. I tried to kick him, and then he punched me.”

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Authorities got involved — but Driver says they put the blame on her. “The way [the police] presented it was, ‘This guy was just having a good time and if you’d gone along with it, it would’ve been fine,'” she added. “‘If you’d just danced with him, you wouldn’t be in this position that you’re in now.'”

The About a Boy alum believes that situations like hers are why some women don’t share their own stories of assault.

“You would believe when you’re young, when you’re 17, 18, you’re going out, the idea that unwanted male attention is something that you are supposed to put up with because it is somehow your role that a guy can come and touch you, he can put his hand way too far down the small of your back so that his hand is kind of going into your butt and that that’s alright,” she said on Tuesday. “That you can be shepherded, herded, touched, mauled. I think young women, they’ve been belittled when they’ve said something.”

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Minnie Driver attends Art For ALS Auction to Benefit Research to Find a Treatment and Cure For ALS at Arena 1 Gallery at the Santa Monica Art Studios on June 15, 2016 in Santa Monica, California.
Minnie Driver attends Art for ALS Auction to Benefit Research to Find a Treatment and Cure For ALS at Arena 1 Gallery at the Santa Monica Art Studios on June 15, 2016, in Santa Monica. Michael Bezjian/Getty Images for ALS.net

Driver’s personal story comes amid newly surfaced comments that Donald Trump made in 2005 about his treatment of women. Last Friday, The Washington Post released an old video of the GOP presidential candidate, 70, bragging to Billy Bush on a hot mic about being able to get away with kissing and groping women because “he’s a star.” The incident took place ahead of an Access Hollywood interview. Bush, who recently joined the Today show, was suspended by NBC because of the conversation. On Tuesday, Us Weekly exclusively revealed that his exit is imminent.

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Driver, who says she knows “way too many women” who have been “manhandled,” reacted to the debacle via Twitter. “After all is said and done, I’m glad it is a woman who might vanquish this particular dragon,” she tweeted on October 9.

One day later, she bashed Trump for describing his lewd remarks as just “locker room” talk. She wrote: “Professional athletes coming out against the insidious ‘excuse’ of those words having been ‘locker room talk,’ is a wonderful thing.”

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