“That whole experience put me in such a messed-up place for a long time,” the “
Girls Trip” actress said.
Tiffany Haddish just revealed she was raped at age 17 by a police cadet.
“That whole experience put me in such a messed-up place for a long time, and I ended up going to counseling,” Haddish told Glamour for the magazine’s August cover story, published on Tuesday. The 38-year-old comedian and actor also discussed her recent rise to fame with the film “Girls Trip,” the who-bit-Beyoncé controversy, and her love for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Haddish said she reported the rape to authorities at the time, but still struggles with what real justice would look like.
“Me just yelling out people’s names with no thought behind it is pointless. I need a plan,” she said. “I could be a voice, but what’s a voice going to do ― just keep talking? Or is there action behind it?”
This is not the first time Haddish has talked about the assault. The “Night School” star first revealed she had been raped in her 2017 memoir The Last Black Unicorn. She gave additional details during an interview that year on the podcast “The Champs.”
The rapist, she said, was a man who offered to give her a ride home after her high school homecoming dance. Instead, he drove her to his place.
“So we get there and we get to his place and I see, like, handcuffs and a police uniform and I’m like, ’What’s that? Is that like a Halloween costume or something? And he’s like, ‘No, I’m a cadet, I’m training to be in the police force,’” Haddish said on “The Champs.”
She continued: “Next thing I know, I’ve got one arm up in the handcuff, and he’s got me pinned down.”
Haddish said she tried to defend herself, but was unsuccessful with only one arm.
“He raped me, he was stronger than me. It was the worst feeling in the world,” she said.
She told Glamour the experience shaped how she interacts with the world.
“I notice that men are afraid of women that are aggressive. So to protect myself I become semi-aggressive,” she said. “You hear about, ‘Tiffany always hitting on somebody,’ but that’s to keep them from hitting on me.”