Harvey Weinstein's former assistant breaks confidentiality contract to speak out against producer after 20 years

Weinstein's former assistant has broken her former confidentiality agreement.
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Martin Coulter24 October 2017

A British former assistant to disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has broken a confidentiality agreement to speak out about alleged sexual harassment.

Zelda Perkins said in an interview with the Financial Times, published on Monday, that she wanted to break the non-disclosure agreement she signed in 1998.

Perkins, who worked for Miramax in London, shared a £250,000 payment with another woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted by Weinstein, according to the report.

Ms Perkins, who waived her right to anonymity, said Weinstein had repeatedly sexually harassed her, starting when he asked her to massage him while he was in his underwear.

Producer Harvey Weinstein attends the BFI's London Film Festival in October 2010.
Getty Images

"I want to publicly break my non-disclosure agreement," she told the newspaper, running the risk of legal action against her.

"Unless somebody does this there won't be a debate about how egregious these agreements are and the amount of duress that victims are put under."

She claims the first time he sexually assaulted her, he had asked her to massage him while he was wearing nothing but his underwear. When she declined, his behaviour continued.

"But this was his behaviour on every occasion I was alone with him," she said. "I often had to wake him up in the hotel in the mornings and he would try to pull me into bed."

Weinstein, who denies allegations of non-consensual sex, has been accused of sexual harassment and abuse by dozens of women since a bombshell investigation published by The New York Times.

The 65-year-old is the subject of criminal investigations in the UK, Los Angeles and New York as well as a civil rights investigation in the US state.

According to his spokesperson, the producer "unequivocally denies" all allegations of non-consensual sex and sexual assault.

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