Celeste Barber opens up about Me Too moment on 97.3fm
AN AUSSIE comedian who shot to global fame off the back of her hilarious parodies of celebrity Instagram photos has spoken out about how she was allegedly sexually harassed by a man “in a position of power” in the radio industry.
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COMEDIAN Celeste Barber has opened up about her own Me Too moment.
In an interview set to air on Brisbane’s 97.3fm this morning, the Australian Instagram star spoke about her decision to share her alleged story of being sexual harassed many years ago by a man working in radio in her upcoming book Challenge Accepted.
Barber, who has amassed more than 4.8 million followers by parodying the highly-posed and paid-for posts of celebrities, told breakfast trio Bianca, Mike and Bob the man “used his position of power to try to do things to me that I wasn’t willing to do”.
“ … Like tried to lock me in cubicles and offered me all this work,” she said.
“And then I was not going to do things with him that he wanted me to in the cubicle at the radio station he then said ‘don’t bother coming back.”
Breakfast host Bianca Dye, who spoke to The Courier-Mail earlier this year about the radio industry’s sleazy and sexist culture, told Barber she was “brave” to use her platform to speak out about it.
Barber, who chose not to name the man, said the stories coming out of the #MeToo movement made her think: “yeah, actually, that’s happened to me as well”.
“It’s a lot more common than people think,” she said.
Dye, who has worked in radio for the past 23 years, previously told The Courier-Mail she had been put in uncomfortable and unfair positions many times throughout her career, particularly during her early years when she was “scared and naive”.
She also stressed there were no issues in her current workplace.
Listen to the full interview with Celeste Barber on 97.3fm’s Bianca, Mike and Bob from 5.30am on Wednesday in Brisbane.
Originally published as Celeste Barber opens up about Me Too moment on 97.3fm