Adrienne Bailon said a man she worked with would repeatedly kiss her on the lips against her will.
On a new episode of The Real, talk show co-hosts Adrienne Bailon, Loni Love, Tamera Mowry, and Jeannie Mai discussed Michelle Obama's recent speech about sexual assault. And in the middle of their conversation, Bailon—a former member of the girl groups the Cheetah Girls and 3LW—opened up about her own experiences with sexual harassment. The singer and actress revealed that as a teenager, she worked with a man who would kiss her on the lips repeatedly and against her will.
"I even experienced an executive that would kiss me on the lips," Bailon said on the show. "Like, if he saw me going through the hallways. It would be like [kiss]." She shared that at first, she wrote it off as an accident. But this put her in a tough position, because when the kissing began happening again and again, she felt like she couldn't say anything. "It consistently happened to the point where I was like, 'This ain't cool, man,'" Bailon said. "Now he knows I'm not going to say anything, which is not OK." And, she said, it didn't help that she was a young teenager just beginning her career.
Bailon then explained that it's not easy for sexual harassment and assault survivors to come forward about what they've experienced—especially when the attacker is in a position of power. "A lot of women are in fear," she said. "You ask yourself, 'Well why do they let them get away with it?' Fear has a big part to do with it. And too, these men [think], 'Because you're famous, you can get away with it.'"
We're proud of Bailon for bravely sharing her story on television, and glad to see someone raising awareness about these issues. Often, survivors aren't believed when they come forward. And it's important to support them—rather than asking why they didn't come forward sooner.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673). More resources are available online from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.