Emily Ratajkowski accuses Robin Thicke of groping her on the set of his music video “Blurred Lines” in the model’s upcoming book My Body.
In the excerpt, first reported by the Sunday Times of London, Ratajkowski — who appears topless in the edited and unrated versions of the controversial visual — initially had no issues with the nudity the Diane Martel-directed video required. However, things changed when Thicke “returned to the set a little drunk to shoot just with me,” Ratajkowski writes.
“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 writes.
“He smiled a goofy grin and stumbled backward, his eyes concealed behind his sunglasses. My head turned to the darkness beyond the set. Diane’s voice cracked as she yelled out to me, ‘Are you okay?’”
Rolling Stone can confirm that the alleged incident appears early in Ratajkowski’s book, in a chapter called “Blurred Lines.” Representatives for Ratajkowski and Thicke did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
“I pushed my chin forward and shrugged, avoiding eye contact, feeling the heat of humiliation pump through my body,” Ratajkowski adds. “I didn’t react – not really, not like I should have.”
Speaking to the Sunday Times of London, Martel also confirmed it took place, telling the magazine, “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 added that Thicke apologized after the incident, which the director said wouldn’t have happened “had he been sober.”
In her book My Body, out October 19th, Ratajkowski continues by saying that she didn’t mention the incident in interviews following the video’s success and beyond because she didn’t want to think about the incident, and she also wanted to protect the environment Martel cultivated on set with the other young models involved.
“Blurred Lines,” which Rolling Stone wrote in 2013 was “the Worst Song of This or Any Other Year,” was also the focus of a lengthy legal battle between Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I. and the estate of Marvin Gaye; the late singer’s family was ultimately awarded $5.3 million following a trial.