The actress played Jo Sugden for three years in the ITV soap and said that she had tried to speak about about her ordeals
Roxanne Pallett (Image: Rex/MEN)
Former Emmerdale actress Roxanne Pallett has revealed that she was stopped from speaking out about repeated incidents of sexual misconduct she suffered while working in theatre.
The 34-year-old, who played Jo Sugden in the ITV soap for three years, has claimed that she has been groped by a crew member, while a stage manager told her that he had masturbated over pictures of her.
Speaking to the the Daily Star newspaper, she said: “I’ve experienced several incidents of inappropriate comments and actions towards me in my career, both sexually and mentally.
“I was told by a stage manager that he had masturbated over pictures of me. On another occasion I was groped by a crew member by the side of the stage.
Roxanne Pallett opened up about suffering incidents of sexual harassment in the theatre (Image: Sunday Mirror)
Roxanne played Jo Sugden in Emmerdale for three years (Image: ITV)
“I turned to an older actress for support and she actually told me sternly to ‘leave it’ and not cause a scene, so I felt very alone and almost like I was perceived as being oversensitive when my gut instinct told me otherwise.”
Pallett, 34, has also appeared in TV shows Casualty and Waterloo Road and this year featured as a panellist in Len Goodman’s Partners In Rhyme.
Roxanne revealed that she had been told to not say anything about the sexual harassment (Image: PA)
After sharing her own story, she commended the wave of women who have recently come forward with their experiences of sexual misconduct in the acting industry, following a series of allegations against disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein .
Hitting out at people who have “hushed” her in the past, she commented: “The surge of actresses coming forward and sharing their stories of abuse is a relief and breaks the taboo which we have all been dealing with.”
Weinstein has “unequivocally denied” allegations of non-consensual s.ex.
