10:11
- ABC News
- November 15, 2017
Terry Crews speaks out on alleged sexual assault
Crews, 49, filed a police report earlier this month.
10:11
My wife n I were at a Hollywood function last year n a high level Hollywood executive came over 2 me and groped my privates. (2/cont.)
— terrycrews (@terrycrews) October 10, 2017
Jumping back I said What are you doing?! My wife saw everything n we looked at him like he was crazy. He just grinned like a jerk. (3/cont.)
— terrycrews (@terrycrews) October 10, 2017
That night and the next day I talked to everyone I knew that worked with him about what happened. (7/cont.)
— terrycrews (@terrycrews) October 10, 2017
He called me the next day with an apology but never really explained why he did what he did. (8/cont.)
— terrycrews (@terrycrews) October 10, 2017
Crews said he went public with the alleged incident after multiple women came forward to accuse now-disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct.
\"I put it in the back of my head, and I understood why women everywhere had to let it go,\" Crews said. \"When the Weinstein thing started happening, I got PTSD. I was going, 'Oh, my God, this exact thing happened to me. I understand why they won't come forward.'\"
Weinstein, 65, has admitted wrongdoing but through a spokesperson has repeatedly denied having nonconsensual sexual relations with accusers.
Crews compared being abused by a person in power to being a war captive.
\"When a person of power breaks that boundary and violates that boundary, you're a prisoner of war,\" he said. \"Immediately, you're in a camp because you're trying to figure out when is the right time to come out.\"
\"This the thing that a lot of people just don't understand, and they end up blaming the victim,\" he said. \"I have totally said I will not be shamed. I will not be shamed. I did nothing wrong. Nothing.\"
Crews credited his wife with keeping him calm after the alleged assault.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/terry-crews-rebecca-king-crews-gty-mem-171115_4x3t_384.jpg\")
\"My wife told me three years earlier, she said, 'Terry, you can never handle any situation like this with violence. You are a target. You are going to be baited and pulled if you react physically,'\" he said. \"When I grabbed her hand and I left that party — we were only there for, like, half an hour — and I got in the car, I almost ripped the steering wheel off.\"
\"If I would have just retaliated in defense, I would be under the jail right now. That's one thing I knew, that being a large African-American man in America, I would immediately be seen as a thug,\" he added. \"But I'm not a thug. I'm an artist.\"
Crews, a father of five, said he was also motivated to speak publicly after delivering a keynote address for an organization that helps victims of sexual assault.
\"I said, 'Man, what kind of man would I be to tell my kids, 'If someone touches you where you don't want to be touched, tell someone, tell someone,' and then I don't do it?\" he said. \"Let me tell you something, it freed me.\"
He continued, \"I knew instantly that I had to tell my story so that other people could be free.\"
Crews posted a tweet with just the hashtag #imfree after his appearance on \"GMA.\"
— terrycrews (@terrycrews) November 15, 2017
ABC News' Alex Stone and Lesley Messer contributed to this report.
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