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Jennifer Grey said she was molested at 14 and experienced a 'loss of innocence' when her family didn't believe her

May 6, 2022, 23:55 IST
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Jennifer Grey.Amy Sussman / Getty Images
  • In her memoir, "Out of the Corner," Jennifer Grey says that she was molested by a "sweet" man.
  • When she told her father, actor Joel Grey, she said he responded, "What did you expect?"
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"Dirty Dancing" star Jennifer Grey alleges in her memoir, "Out of the Corner," that at age 14, she was molested by the superintendent of her grandparents' apartment complex. After she told her family, "Nothing could have prepared me for their blatant, blank dismissal of what had happened to me," she wrote.

Grey grew up surrounded by Hollywood types, as her father is actor Joel Grey and her grandfather was comedian Mickey Katz. But, according to her book, this didn't protect her from traumatic experiences growing up.

In the book, Grey goes into depth into the story of her visit, during which alleges that she was sexually assaulted by the apartment superintendent, Jorge, after returning home from a date with a childhood crush, Steve.

Jennifer Grey with her father, Joel, in the '80s.Jim Smeal/Getty Images

According to Grey, when she arrived home from a largely uneventful date, she rang the buzzer for her grandparents' apartment, but they didn't answer. This led to her buzzing the superintendent for help, as she had been introduced to him the day prior. Her grandparents had called him "the most wooonderful young man."

Grey wrote that she used Jorge's phone to call her grandparents, who eventually answered and told her to come up. When Grey turned to leave, Jorge was standing there. According to Grey, he made her feel comfortable by asking about her braces appointment the day prior. "Oh my god! This guy is so sweet," she wrote.

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She showed off her smile. "I must've closed my eyes for a brief second," she wrote. "Next thing I knew, he was behind me, pinning my arms down by my side [...] He was now licking my neck, breathing harder and harder, pressing his body into me from behind."

"Then this calm came over me," the "Dirty Dancing" star continued, and she channeled "an awakened beast I hadn't known was inside me."

According to Grey, she yelled that he was "pathetic," and asked, "You can't get someone your own age to have sex with you, so you go after a 14-year-old girl?" She wrote that this caused him to finally stop.

She left, went to her grandparents' apartment, and threw up. Then she called her dad.

Jennifer Grey at age 19 attending a movie premiere party with her father, Joel Grey, in 1979.Ron Galella/Getty Images

But, Grey wrote, this conversation didn't go as planned. "Well, what did you expect?" Grey recalled her father responding. "You were probably all juicy from your date."

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"I was filled with shame as well as with a healthy dose of disgust," she wrote.

She then told her grandparents, who reacted angrily. "Our Jorge? He would never," they said, according to Grey.

Grey said she was confused and traumatized by the incident and her family's subsequent dismissal.

"This was a loss of innocence," she said, adding, "I felt perhaps I must've been somehow at fault," she wrote. "Why else would the people I trusted most in the world disappoint me so profoundly?"

Joel Grey has not responded to Insider's request for comment, though he has posted his support of his daughter's book on Instagram.

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"Out of the Corner" is out now.

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