Judy Garland ‘was groped by the munchkins on the set of Wizard of Oz’, ex-husband Sid Luft claimed

JUDY Garland was molested by the munchkins on the set of The Wizard of Oz when she was 16, an explosive new book claims.

Judy Garland was 16 when she played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. Picture: Supplied

ACTRESS Judy Garland was groped by the munchkins on the set of The Wizard of Oz when she was a teenager, her ex-husband claimed.

The late star was just 16 when she took on the iconic role of Dorothy in the 1939 classic movie.

An unfinished book written by her ex Sid Luft, discovered in his archives a year ago, has now been published, according to The Sun. Luft died in 2005.

In Judy and I: My Life with Judy Garland, Luft claimed the actors who played the munchkins sexually harassed Garland.

“They thought they could get away with anything because they were so small. They would make Judy’s life miserable on set by putting their hands under her dress. The men were forty or more years old,” he wrote.

Judy Garland, then aged 16, greets the munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. Picture: Supplied

Garland — who was married to Luft for 13 years from 1952 — became a Hollywood icon after the movie.

But the child star turned into a self-destructive diva and eventually succumbed to her lifelong addiction to prescription drugs. She died of an overdose aged 47.

Luft, the second of Garland’s five husbands, witnessed both her epic triumphs and chaotic spiral from inside her showbiz bubble.

Judy Garland got her big break in The Wizard of Oz. Picture: Supplied

He laid bare Garland’s dramatic life in his memoir, which he began writing after their divorce in 1965.

The couple’s relationship began amid scandal as Garland was still married to first husband Vincente Minnelli, Liza’s father, and Luft was in the process of divorcing actress Lynn Bari.

Luft was instantly smitten when he met Garland (who was “glowing like a ripened cherry”) at a Manhattan club, sensing an “electrical force” coming from her.

Sid Luft with his daughter Lorna Luff, in character as Miss Adelaide from Guys And Dolls. Picture: Supplied

Luft recalled: “It was virtually impossible to be cool around Judy since I lusted so entirely after her.”

Of the first night they spent together, he said: “I was to discover just how different Judy was from other women. She was uninhibited, giving herself over to her passions so completely.”

But during the heady days of their early romance, the producer confessed how he couldn’t bring himself to ask about the “thin scars” he spotted on the insides of Garland’s wrists.

It was only over time that he saw first-hand the actress’s heavy use of amphetamines and barbiturates which left her in black depressions, with suicidal thoughts.

He wrote: “She was married to the drugs before she met me, and she never really got divorced.”

Read more at The Sun.

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Originally published as Judy Garland ‘was groped by the munchkins on the set of Wizard of Oz’, ex-husband Sid Luft claimed