The beautiful and bold American model and author Padma Lakshmi, after nearly 32 years has disclosed that she was raped when she was only 16.
But the bigger question is- why did the Indian origin model stay mum for such a long time?
In an opinion piece in the New York Times, the American TV anchor penned down the reasons that made her remain silent about her terrible experience for so long.
It was in a suburb of Los Angeles that she had just started dating a “charming and handsome” 23-year-old man.
Apparently, Padma Lakshmi was raped by the same charming man, just a few months after they started dating, on a New Year’s Eve.
And what compelled Padma Lakshmi to come out of the closet now?
The recent accusations of sexual assault against US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is the reason.
In the article in the New York Times, Padma Lakshmi, who is the ex-wife of noted author Salman Rushdie, said that she understands why the women– Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez talked about their experience so late.
To explain the same, she referred to a recent tweet by US President Donald Trump, who had questioned as to why Dr Ford did not reveal or file a complaint about her ordeal years ago.
Trump had tweeted, “I have no doubt that, if the attack on Dr. Ford was as bad as she says, charges would have been immediately filed with local Law Enforcement Authorities by either her or her loving parents. I ask that she bring those filings forward so that we can learn date, time, and place!”
Narrating her ordeal, Padma Lakshmi said that one of the reasons that compelled her to remain silent and not share the same with even her mother was an incident that occurred when she was seven.
At the age of seven, Padma was inappropriately touched by a relative of her stepfather, and when she told her mother about it, she was immediately sent to India for a year to live with her grandparents.
The lesson that she drew from her experience was – “if you speak up, you will be cast out”, thereby affecting her ability to trust.
Padma Lakshmi, who wrote that she was a virgin before she was raped, said that she was opening up about the unfortunate incident because she wanted “our daughters to never know this fear and shame”.
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