Harry Potter star Jessie Cave, who played Lavender Brown in the hit movie franchise, has opened up about being raped by her tennis coach as a teenager as she spoke to her sister.
Jessie, 33, has launched her own podcast, We Can’t Talk About That Right Now, with her actress sister Bebe, 23, and opened up during the latest session.
The sisters were talking about Bebe’s journey into adulthood compared to Jessie’s, as Bebe said: “I remember we had a really, really bad fight once when we tried to work out who had a harder teenager-hood.”
Jessie replied: “I mean, come on, I was raped. I get the trump card.”
Bebe said: “That’s kind of a trump card at this point and you do pull it out a lot”, as her sister agreed: “I do pull it out a lot.”
Jessie opened up about being raped to her sister Bebe in their latest podcast (Image: Barcroft Media via Getty Images)
Pregnant Jessie giggled as her sister continued: “I had braces for five years, I had acne when I was finishing my adolescence… I had clear skin all the way through school, and just when things are supposed to be getting good, then I got it really bad.”
Jessie said: “To be fair, acne and braces are bad, but I think rape at 14 is pretty bad.
“By your tennis coach, who you trusted, a position of power.”
Jessie played Lavender Brown in the hit movie franchise until 2011 (Image: Jaap Buitendijk)
Bebe joked: “Well, at least you were an athlete and you had good legs.”
Jessie replied: “That’s true, I was fit and I was very able with a tennis ball. But I was still taken advantage of, and he was sent to jail, so it’s fine.”
She continued: “My rape did mean that I have had a completely different adolescence and early twenties to you, because in retrospect I was still recovering and my sexual journey was a completely abnormal road to yours.
The film franchise aired eight films over a decade (Image: © Warner Bros)
“I think that there are still consequences from that period of time that I’m only realising 18 years later, and actually, the more time I have away from it – this is going to sound awful – but I do feel quite lucky in so many ways.
“It didn’t destroy me, and I think that’s something that people don’t talk about enough with sexual abuse and trauma.
“There are some people that are okay after, there are some people that do use it and find a way of living with it and definitely are not defined by it.”
Jessie previously opened up about being raped in her stand-up shows, and also discussed it in 2018.
She told The Times in 2018: “I had to really consider whether it was worth it, whether it was necessary and if it was going to be good for me. And weirdly, it has been cathartic.”
Jessie announced in June that she is pregnant with her third child; she and Alfie are already parents to five-year-old Donnie and three-year-old Margot.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
