‘I’m tired of hiding’: Harvey Weinstein rape victim reveals identity

‘Jane Doe 1’ revealed herself as a model and actress Harvey Weinstein raped in a Beverly Hills hotel 10 years ago, resulting in the disgraced movie mogul’s 16-year prison sentence.

Evgeniya Chernyshova described in excruciating detail her abuse by Harvey Weinstein. Picture: Instagram

The former model and actress abused by Harvey Weinstein spoke publicly for the first time under her real name, Evgeniya Chernyshova.

The 43-year-old testified about her 2013 rape in a Beverly Hills hotel as “Jane Doe 1”, but revealed her identity after Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in prison this week.

“I’m tired of hiding. I want my life back. I’m Evgeniya, I’ve been raped. This is my story,” Ms Chernyshova said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

Former model and actress Evgeniya Chernyshova revealed her identity as “Jane Doe 1” after Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 16-years in prison for rape. Picture: Instagram

Ms Chernyshova grew up in Russia and was living with her husband in Italy when she travelled to Los Angeles for a business trip during Oscars week 10 years ago. Weinstein knocked on her hotel room door uninvited, leading to a conviction on charges of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and penetration by a foreign object.

“Part of me, I’m fearing for my future. But I’m proud of myself. If I continue to hide, I cannot do anything. I will just be there with my pain,” she told THR.

Ms Chernyshova, who started modelling at 15, has acting credits in movies Triggerman and The Last in Paradise, the TV series Baciati dall’amore, and “Meet the Nice Guys”, a short featurette for the Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling buddy cop film, The Nice Guys.

She had met Weinstein previously in Italy, and earlier that day at the Los Angeles Italia Film Festival. While Weinstein introduced himself apparently unaware they had previously met, Ms Chernyshova told THR he later showed up to her room at the Mr C Beverly Hills Hotel.

“And that is the thing I have regretted for the last 10 years — that I did open this door,” she says.

“He just walked through me and went directly to the chair. He was like, ‘We’re just talking. There’s nothing happening. Why are you so nervous?’”

“Something clicked, like a change in his eyes,” she says. “I realised that something was wrong.”

Evgeniya Chernyshova described in excruciating detail her abuse by Harvey Weinstein. Picture: Instagram

“He opened his pants, and I became hysterical,” she says. “I was continuing to show my kids’ pictures, to try to convince him that, ‘I have kids, please do not do that.’ But he did what he did. He assaulted me in the bedroom, and then he dragged me to the bathroom and he raped me there.”

“I felt very, very dirty and like I have to die.”

Ms Chernyshova, who has a 21-year-old daughter, was one of four women who accused Weinstein of rape in the Los Angeles trial, but the only one that returned a conviction.

The raped drove her to heavy drinking, and separation from her husband, who has since died. She later moved from Italy to California with her adult children, where she now runs a floral design business.

After a period of heavy drinking and regret, Evgeniya Chernyshova now runs a floral design business in Los Angeles. Picture: Instagram

“I was hating myself,” Chernyshova said. “I was thinking all the time, ‘There were a lot of beautiful women and stars there, and he chose you. So it’s you who did something.’ I was depressed, I was mentally not stable. I was out of my mind.”

Already serving a 23-year sentence on separate charges in New York, the additional 16 years all but guarantees that Weinstein will die in prison.

WEINSTEIN SENTENCED FOR RAPE

Former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was sentenced Thursday to 16 years in prison for the rape of a woman in a Beverly Hills hotel room a decade ago.

The sentence was handed down by a Los Angeles court. Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence for his separate 2020 conviction in New York for sex crimes.

It increases the likelihood that the Academy Award-winning “Shakespeare in Love” producer, 70, will spend the remainder of his life in prison – though he is appealing in both cases.

In December, he was convicted by a Los Angeles jury of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object of a European actress whose identity was not revealed.

The court heard explicit accounts of meetings between the previously influential movie producer and several young women who were attempting to find a foothold in Hollywood.

Prosecutors said Weinstein exploited and abused women for years, and long enjoyed impunity because of his then-powerful position in the industry.

The women would have risked losing their future Hollywood job prospects if they had publicly accused Weinstein at the time, prosecutors said.

Weinstein was ultimately convicted in the Los Angeles case of assaulting one woman, but acquitted of sexual battery involving a second.

The disgraced film producer is already serving 23 years in jail for a separate sex crimes conviction. Picture: AFP

The jury did not reach a verdict on charges relating to the alleged assaults of two other women, one of whom was identified by her lawyers as Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the now-wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Weinstein’s lawyers had filed a defence motion requesting either a new trial or a reduced verdict, alleging they were precluded from admitting important evidence about the rape victim – including Facebook messages with an alleged lover which the judge deemed irrelevant – and that their cross-examination was limited.

But Judge Lisa Lench denied the motion, and sentencing went ahead. In New York last June, Weinstein lost his first appeal against his criminal verdict and sentence in the state’s intermediate appellate court.

But he has also further appealed that case to the higher New York Court of Appeals.

The allegations against Weinstein launched the #MeToo movement. Picture: AFP

Weinstein’s behaviour had been the topic of rumours in entertainment circles for years, but his power player status in Hollywood ensured few were willing to publicly call him out.

Bombshell allegations broke against him in 2017, launching the #MeToo movement and paving the way for hundreds of women to fight back against sexual violence in the workplace.

Dozens of women have now accused Weinstein of predatory behaviour. After his conviction in New York, a civil trial awarded $17 million to dozens of other women who had accused the former movie magnate of abuse.

Earlier this month, the European actress who Weinstein was convicted of raping in Los Angeles also sued him for damages.

The civil case alleges sexual battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence.

“The conduct of Defendant Weinstein was despicable, and done with malice, oppression and fraud, thus justifying an award of punitive damages against him,” her lawsuit says.

– With AFP