Penny Lancaster has bravely opened up a few sequence of sexual assaults she endured from her childhood by to her teenage years. The 54-year-old mannequin, who’s married to legendary singer Sir Rod Stewart, 80, has detailed these harrowing experiences for the primary time in her memoir, Somebody Like Me, which incorporates an account of an assault at 17 the place she believes she was drugged by a dressmaker.
Penny, whose guide is ready to be launched on the finish of September, shared a few of its contents with the Day by day Mail on Saturday, revealing how repeated encounters with predatory males left her deeply traumatised. In line with the Mail, her memoir begins together with her worry of the sound of footsteps, stemming from an incident when she was simply 5 years previous and a person tried to abduct her from her backyard. Her father later caught the person and “taught that man a lesson he’d always remember”, in response to Penny’s guide.
On the age of 12, she was assaulted in an underpass by a person who grabbed her from behind as she walked alone to highschool. Regardless of managing to flee and helping the police in figuring out her attacker, the fallacious man was arrested, and her assailant was by no means delivered to justice.
The Mail studies that this trauma led to Penny growing hyperhidrosis, a situation inflicting her arms and toes to excessively sweat when she feels anxious. The publication additionally revealed that she suffered a “terrifying” sexual assault initially of her modelling profession when she was 17, a secret she has stored till now.
The Mail reported: “En path to a fundraising occasion with a a lot older shopper – a male dressmaker she nonetheless will not title – Lancaster was invited into his residence and handed a martini whereas he ‘collected one thing’.
Her subsequent reminiscence was waking up on a mattress in his bed room. Penny revealed: “I had been drugged. I used to be mendacity face down with no underwear on and he was between my legs. I do not know to at the present time if I used to be raped.
“The Mail continued: “The subsequent morning, the predator known as Lancaster to ask if he may purchase her a diamond necklace. She put the telephone down.
“Penny confided to the Mail that sharing these experiences in her guide has helped her to “dissect and break all of it down”.
She talked about that actress Kate Silverton defined a method the place victims revisit their traumatised youthful selves. Penny elaborated: “You return to Penelope as a 12-year-old, the identical with the five- and 17-year-olds, and attempt to bear in mind what she was going by, maintain her hand.
“Nonetheless, she admitted she had not but tried the remedy. Penny additionally confronted belittlement on Superstar MasterChef in 2021 by former choose Greg Wallace. She commented: “I am unsure that somebody like Gregg is even conscious of how his behaviour impacts individuals round him; probably he is acquired away with it for too lengthy.
“And he is a comparatively quick man, so, at first look, not an intimidating character. You are placed on the again foot.”
The BBC has confirmed that Greg, 60, has been dismissed after 45 accusations of inappropriate behaviour towards him had been upheld.
