Trigger Warning: This article contains mentions of rape.
Actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish revealed in a recent interview with Glamour that when she was 17 years old, she was raped 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.
Haddish said she reported the rape, though she didn’t mention if there were any legal repercussions. To this day, she’s not sure what justice would look like for her.
“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?”
According to HuffPost, the Glamour interview isn’t the first time Haddish has talked about the rape. She made the reveal in her 2017 memoir, The Last Black Unicorn, and expanded on the incident during an interview on “The Champs” podcast.
Haddish said she met the man at a basketball game, and he later offered to drive her home after her high school homecoming dance. Once the two were in his car, he actually drove them 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?” Haddish said on the podcast. “And he’s like, ‘No, I’m a cadet, I’m training to be in the police force.”
Haddish continued, “Next thing I know, I’ve got one arm up in the handcuff, and he’s got me pinned down.”
She said she fought back, but he overpowered her.
“He raped me. He was stronger than me. It was the worst feeling in the world,” Haddish said.
She told Glamour that the experience has forced her to always be on the defense.
“I notice that men are afraid of women that are aggressive. So to protect myself I become semi-aggressive,” Haddish said. “You hear about, ‘Tiffany always hitting on somebody,’ but that’s to keep them from hitting on me.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673) or find additional resources here.