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Crime

28th Jul 2022

Ashley Judd tracked down her rapist and they ended up ‘in rocking chairs sitting by a creek together’

Kieran Galpin

Ashely Judd

Judd was one of the first people to speak out against Harvey Weinstein

Actor Ashely Judd has revealed that she sat down with the man who raped her in 1999 for a “restorative-justice conversation” that saw them “in rocking chairs sitting by a creek.”

The 54-year-old actor appeared on the Healing With David Kessler podcast, where she said that she “didn’t need anything” from her rapist but was “very interested in hearing” his story.

As reported in the New York Post, the unnamed man expressed “deep remorse and made amends.”

“I didn’t need anything from him, and it was just gravy that he made his amends and expressed his deep remorse because healing from grief is an inside job,” she explained. “I wanted to share that story because there are many ways of healing from grief, and it’s important to remind listeners.”

The Divergent actor has spoken openly about her history in the past, most notably in her 2011 autobiography, All That is Bitter & Sweet.

In 2015, she thanked her therapist for helping her “finally speak” out.

Healing With David Kessler

“Nine years into my recovery, I can go farther and say my ‘story’ is not ‘my story,'” she wrote at the time.

“It is something a Higher Power (spirituality, for me, has been vital in this healing) uses to allow me the grace and privilege of helping others who are still hurting and perhaps to offer a piece of education, awareness and action to our world.”

Then in 2017, Judd was also one of the first to speak out against Harvey Weinstein, saying he tried to make her watch him shower. She then sued the director for sexual harassment and defamation, the latter of which he denies.

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