The conversations pertaining to sexual assault involving male victims doesn’t happen nearly enough, but America’s Next Top Model judge Nigel Barker is speaking up.
Nigel publicly revealed for the first time that he was sexually assaulted as a child. The fashion photographer recalled on his SiriusXM show, Gentleman’s Code, that the traumatizing incident that occurred when he was just 8 years old.
He says that an older man asked him for directions before he pushed him into a building.
“I went up to the door and read the names on the buzzers.… I went to push it, and he pushed me from behind, jolted me through the doors and I fell to my feet inside the door,” Barker recalled. “The door closed and I’m now trapped between a stairwell inside and a shut door. I have a man who is much bigger than me, push me to the ground, grab me, pull my trousers and my pants down. I’m now exposed, and I’m screaming and thrashing.”
“I kicked and I actually kicked him in the nuts and he sort of jumped back for a second. Enough for me to get up, squeeze out and, as he tried to grab for me in the back of my neck and the back of my hair, I ran out,” said Barker. “And I ran all the way home. Now here’s the thing: I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t tell my parents. I didn’t tell my brothers. I told no one. I was humiliated. I was scared. I was worried. I thought I had done the wrong thing. I thought I had done the bad thing. It was something that stuck with me for a very long time.”
Fortunately, he was able to get away. Nigel decided to tell his story in honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Listen to his harrowing experience below.
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