Reese Witherspoon reveals she was sexually assaulted by a director at 16 as she praises 'brave women' in empowering speech

Reese Witherspoon has revealed that she was sexually assaulted by a Hollywood director when she was just 16-years-old.

During a speech at the Elle Women in Hollywood Awards, the actress said that she had been “truly disgusted” by the incident and had gone on to have “multiple experiences” of harassment over the years.

Witherspoon said that the numerous allegation of sexual misconduct against producer Harvey Weinstein had made her feel brave enough to “speak up” after years of being silenced.

“[I feel] true disgust at the director who assaulted me when I was 16-years-old and anger at the agents and the producers who made me feel that silence was a condition of my employment,” she told the audience.

“And I wish that I could tell you that was an isolated incident in my career, but sadly it wasn’t. I’ve had multiple experiences of harassment and sexual assault and I don’t speak about them very often.”

The Legally Blonde actress continued: “But after hearing all the stories these past few days and hearing these brave women speak up tonight about things that we’re kind of told to sweep under the rug and not to talk about, it’s made me want to speak up and speak up loudly because I actually felt less alone this week than I have ever felt in my entire career.”

Witherspoon went on to say that she had spoken to many women who had had similar experiences over the years and now felt “encouraged” that speaking out would now be “the new normal”.

After A-list stars including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd accused Weinstein of sexual harassment, more than 40 women have added their voices to the list.

Weinstein denies all allegations of non-consensual sex.