Emily Ratajkowski accuses Robin Thicke of groping her while filming ‘Blurred Lines’ music video
Content warning: this article discusses allegations of sexual assault.
Model Emily Ratajkowski has accused Robin Thicke of groping her breasts without consent while on the set of 2013’s ‘Blurred Lines’ music video.
As detailed in her forthcoming book, My Body, and first reported by The Sunday Times, Ratajkowski said she initially had no issue with being nude for the edited and unrated versions of the music video. However, at one point the model claims Thicke “returned to the set a little drunk to shoot just with me”.
“Suddenly, out of nowhere, I felt the coolness and foreignness of a stranger’s hands cupping my bare breasts from behind. I instinctively moved away, looking back at Robin Thicke,” Ratajkowski wrote in the book (via Rolling Stone).
“He smiled a goofy grin and stumbled backward, his eyes concealed behind his sunglasses. My head turned to the darkness beyond the set. [Director Diane Martel’s] voice cracked as she yelled out to me, ‘Are you okay?’”
Neither Thicke nor Ratajkowski has publicly shared any comments on the allegations.
Ratajkowski said she did not make the allegations public earlier because she did not want to think about it, and wanted to protect the workplace environment Martel fostered on set with the other models. It was Martel who convinced Ratajkowski – who has previously said she “wasn’t into the idea at all at first” – to join the project.
“We just connected personally, she’s smart, she’s really culturally sensitive, and she talked to me about her ideas and how the women would be in the video,” Ratajkowski wrote (via Yahoo!).
The Sunday Times also spoke with Martel, who supported the model’s allegations against Thicke.
“I remember the moment that he grabbed her breasts. One in each hand. He was standing behind her as they were both in profile. I screamed in my very aggressive Brooklyn voice, ‘What the fuck are you doing, that’s it!! The shoot is over!’” Martel said.
Martel also claimed Thicke apologised after he allegedly groped Ratajkowski. The director says she he would not have done it “had he been sober”.
My Body is due for release November 9.
In 2015, Thicke and ‘Blurred Lines’ collaborators Pharrell Williams and T.I. were successfully sued by Marvin Gaye’s family, claiming the 2013 song copied Gaye’s 1977 single ‘Got To Give It Up’. An attempt to appeal the verdict failed in 2018, but cleared T.I. of charges.