Model Emily Ratajkowski has grave allegations against a photographer she worked with when she was 20.
Emily Ratajkowski (29) has been an internationally sought-after model for years. However, the US-American does not seem to have had exclusively positive experiences in the industry. In an essay for "The Cut", a magazine belonging to "New York" magazine, Ratajkowski reported on an incident that is said to have occurred in 2012 with photographer Jonathan Leder. She was 20 years old then.
She thought she could manage on her own
Ratajkowski had an appointment with Leder for a photo shoot in his house. A make-up artist was present, they drank a glass or two of wine and finally took pictures of underwear in the bedroom, followed by nudes. No problem for the model, it wasn't his first nude shoot. After the work was done, Ratajkowski would have returned to the living room in underwear, leather and the make-up artist. The latter said goodbye after a short time, whereupon the then 20-year-old had a bad feeling.
"I was mad at her for leaving me, but I didn't want to admit that her presence made any difference," recalled Ratajkowski. She told herself to "deal with him alone". But she seemed to be wrong. "Jonathan and I were sitting on his couch and the rough texture of his jeans rubbed against my bare legs. (…) Most of what came next was blurry, except for the feeling."
"It really, really hurt"
The model remembers "how his fingers were suddenly inside me. Always harder and harder and more pressing and pressing, as if nobody had touched me before. (…) It really, really hurt." Instinctively, she grabbed Leder's hand and "pulled his fingers out of me by force". The photographer got up without a word and disappeared into the upper floor of the house. Ratajkowski, too, "climbed the wooden stairs" into the room in which the shoot had previously taken place.
"I was shaking uncontrollably. I was both confused about why Jonathan had left without a word and horrified that he was coming back." The next morning they had hushed up the subject when they met. The model "didn't tell anyone what happened and tried not to think about it."
Leder denies "defamatory" allegations
On the part of the photographer it hails denials. "USA Today" released excerpts from a statement which stated that Leder "completely denies the outrageous defamatory allegations." One wants to initiate "legal action" against Vox Media, the parent company of "New York" magazine, due to the fact that it has published "such a tasteless and unfounded article".