Ashley Judd says there’s "hope" for women who have been victims of "sexual abuse".
The 50-year-old actress accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment last year and has been spearheading the movements to end sexual misconduct ever since, and she has now reassured victims their life isn’t over, because they can "heal" and grow stronger.
In a message on Twitter, the ‘Heat’ actress said: "There is hope for women who have been sexually abused. We have the opportunity to heal and take responsibility of our healing. It is a long journey to get to a particular place of healing – and it is okay. You have survived."
Earlier this year, Ashley filed a defamation lawsuit against Weinstein after claiming he prevented her from getting a role in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ because she had rejected his sexual advances.
Weinstein, 66, then filed to have the case thrown out of court, as he claimed Ashley had "filed this action 20 years too late" as the alleged incident happened in 1998.
But the ‘Divergent’ star hit back, branding his filing as "offensive".
Her team said in a statement: "Mr. Weinstein’s arguments seeking to escape the consequences of his despicable misconduct are not only baseless, they are offensive.
"We look forward to opposing his flawed motion, moving forward with discovery into his outrageous behavior, and proving to a jury that Mr. Weinstein maliciously damaged Ms. Judd’s career because she resisted his sexual advances."
Meanwhile, in May this year, Ashley said she was confident people will "heal" after the #MeToo movement.
She said: "We can heal. That has been my experience. We may not, admittedly, know how to, or even from what we need to heal … We may not even think we need to heal, that maybe we’ve just had some c****y relationships. Whatever trauma looks like in our lives, feelings can be healed … [We are] ultimately responsible, respondable to our own lives. This may sound harsh, but it means we have autonomy, we are powerful, and we have agency."