Actress Hedren: Hitchcock Stalked, Sexually Harassed Me

In new memoir, Hedren says Hitchcock also touched her innappropriately
By Daniel Kay,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 30, 2016 5:06 PM CDT
Actress Hedren: Hitchcock Stalked, Sexually Harassed Me
In this May 9, 1963 file photo, Alfred Hitchcock and American actress Tippi Hedren arrive at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes, France for the presentation of their film "The Birds" at the Festival Palace.   (AP Photo/Jean Jacques Levy, File)

In her new memoir, actress Tippi Hedren claims that legendary director Alfred Hitchcock repeatedly sexually harassed her. The abuse allegedly happened when the pair collaborated on a pair of films, The Birds and Marnie. Us Weekly reports that Hedren's book, Tippi, which is out November 1, details how Hitchcock developed an unhealthy obsession with Hedren on the set of The Birds, repeatedly being driven by her house, asking her to "touch him," and once trying to force her to kiss him in a limo. She claims the director had a door installed between her dressing room and his office, and that he once "put his hands on me" in her dressing room, per People. "It was sexual, it was perverse," she said.

Hedren, who is now 86, says she didn't speak out back then because "sexual harassment and stalking were terms that didn't exist." In addition to the sexual advances, the New York Post highlights excerpts from the memoir that claim Hitchcock was psychologically abusive and severely overworked Hedren on set. Although Hedren claims that Hitchcock "ruined my career," she made sure to see that "I never gave him the power to ruin my life." Hitchcock died in 1980. (More movies stories.)

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