Brooke Shields tells of rape for the first time in Pretty Baby documentary

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Brooke Shields tells of rape for the first time in Pretty Baby documentary
Brooke Shields tells of rape for the first time in Pretty Baby documentary

Brooke Shields has opened up for the first time about being raped early on in her Hollywood career.

The 57-year-old actress and model reveals she was raped in a hotel room by an unnamed man in the film industry while in her early 20s in her new Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields documentary that premiered last month in the US.

The former child actress reveals her struggle to find acting work after graduating from Princeton University in 1987.

So she explains she jumped at the chance to discuss a new movie role when an acquaintance from the industry asked her to dinner.

"I thought it was a work meeting," Brooke says in the documentary. "I had met this person before and he was always nice to me."

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Brooke Shields tells of rape for the first time in Pretty Baby documentaryBrooke's mother was her manager (Getty Images)

But as they tucked into their meal, the young star noticed "his behaviour was changing and there was no talk about the movie".

After dinner, the man insisted she call a taxi from his hotel room, which he then left.

When he returned, the man was naked and threw himself on her.

"He was right on me. It was just like wrestling," she said breaking down in tears in the documentary, according to USA Today.

"I was afraid I would get choked out or something, I didn't know. I played the scene out in my head, so I didn't fight that much. ... I just absolutely froze. I just thought, 'Stay alive and get out.'

"I just shut it out. God knows I knew how to be disassociated from my body. I’d practised that."

Brooke Shields tells of rape for the first time in Pretty Baby documentaryBrooke found fame when she was just 11 (Getty Images)

Brooke doesn't name her alleged attacker in the documentary.

Afterwards she says she called a cab and "cried all the way" to her friend's apartment where she told her security chief, Gavin de Becker, about the incident.

"I was angry to hear her story," de Becker says in the film. "That's my little sister and I wanted her to know she didn't do anything wrong."

Brooke says she refused to accept what had happened to her for years: "I drank wine at dinner. I went up to the room. I just was so trusting..."

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The incident is just one of many traumatic moments she recalls in Pretty Baby - a two-part documentary set to stream on Hulu later this year.

Brooke Shields tells of rape for the first time in Pretty Baby documentaryPretty Baby came out in 1978 (Getty Images)

The actress found fame when she starred in the 1978 film Pretty Baby where she played a child prostitute at just aged 11.

During the film, Brooke had to appear naked on screen as well as kiss a 29-year-old Keith Carradine.

Brooke defended the movie, which was about the red-light district of New Orleans but it was condemned as little more than child pornography.

It received an X-rating in the UK and release was delayed until cuts were made.

However, in the new documentary, Brooke talks about how it triggered a pattern of exploitation which led to her being raped in her early 20s.

When she was just 14, Shields starred in teen romance Blue Lagoon, in which her character had sex with Christopher Atkins, then 18.

A body-double stood in for her sex scenes but, Shields says, the film-makers encouraged her to pursue a real romance with Atkins off-screen.

The next year, Brooke was in Franco Zeffirelli’s romantic drama Endless Love, about two high-school sweethearts who are forbidden to see each other where there was more nudity.

The documentary also examines Brooke's relationship with her mother and manager Teri Shields.

"Brooke is like a work of art," Teri says of her daughter in an unearthed TV interview. "And like any beautiful painting, the world should view Brooke and enjoy her."

The documentary will be released at a later date on Hulu in the United States and is expected to be available as Star Originals on Disney+ in the UK.

Charlotte Everett

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