Ashley Judd reveals she was raped in her younger years

Actress and activist Ashley Judd revealed while visiting India that she had been sexually abused more than once, since she was as young as seven. Ms Judd, 48, was speaking at the World Congress Against Sexual Exploitation of Women and Girls in New Delhi.

Ashley Judd said she survived sexual violence and had been molested at seven, raped at 14 and then again in 1998, reported news agency ANI. She also spoke about gender inequality, alleging that as a female actor, she made 40% less than male co-stars.

Judd added that there are severe flaws in law on violence against women across the world, and the move for the abolition of trafficking would end harassment. "If us as survivors can come together, we can create change. The onus of the crime should only go to the perpetrator. And laws should give women and girls exit strategies to get out of trafficking," she said.

She further said, “It’s a miracle that I wasn’t trafficked.” At the end of the press conference the actress requested everyone to stand against sexual assault. She said in Hindi, “Ab samjhauta nahi (no more compromise)”.

Ashley Judd, daughter of country music star Naomi Judd, previously revealed that she had been sexually harassed by a Hollywood studio executive. In 2015, she told Mirror that when she was filming Kiss The Girls in the executive - one of Hollywood's top bosses - summoned her to his hotel room and asked her to watch him shower.

"I was sexually harassed by one of our industry's most famous, admired-slash-reviled bosses. He was very stealth and expert about it. He groomed me, which is a technical term - 'Oh, come meet at the hotel for something to eat'. It went on in these stages. It was so disgusting," Ms Judd said.

Later, she discovered that other actresses had been similarly harassed by the executive, whom she did not name. "Only when we were sitting around talking about it did we realise our experiences were identical. There was a mutual strengthening and fortification of our resolve. The ultimate thing when I was weaselling out of everything else was, 'Will you watch me take a shower?' And all the other women, sitting around this table with me, said, 'Oh my god - that's what he said to me too'," Ashley Judd told Mirror.