Padma Lakshmi reveals being sexually assaulted at 16: There was no language for date rape in 1980s

American model and author Padma Lakshmi, in an op-ed in the New York Times, reveals she was sexually assaulted by an older boyfriend at the age of 16 while sleeping. Following the sexual abuse accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh , which allegedly went unreported for years, celebrities and women in positions of power have come forward to share their stories of sexual assault and why they did not report them. [caption id=“attachment_5263711” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Padma Lakshmi. Image via Twitter/@lavinamelwani[/caption] The Top Chef host, in the article titled ‘Padma Lakshmi: I Was Raped at 16 and I Kept Silent’, talks about a ‘charming and handsome’ man she was dating at the age of 16. She says that although they would get intimate with each other, he knew she was a virgin and unsure about intercourse. One day, she writes, when both of them came home together and went to bed, she woke up with him on top of her. When she asked what he was trying to do, he told her it was going to ‘hurt for a while’. The author also says that because there was no terminology for ‘date rape’ in the 1980s, she kept blaming herself for it for a long time. She also brought up another encounter she had with her father’s relative at the age of seven, where she was sexually violated for the first time. Lakshmi then went on to extend her support to Kavanaugh’s accusers Dr Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez saying, “I understand why both women would keep this information to themselves for so many years, without involving the police. For years, I did the same thing.”