Taylor Swift has spoken out about being groped by radio host David Mueller during a backstage meet-and-greet in 2013.
The pop superstar is one of several women featured on the cover of the new issue of Time, which honours “The Silence Breakers” as Person of the Year.
“I figured that if he would be brazen enough to assault me under these risky circumstances and high stakes, imagine what he might do to a vulnerable, young artist if given the chance,” Swift told the magazine.
“It was important to report the incident to his radio station because I felt like they needed to know. The radio station conducted its own investigation and fired him. Two years later, he sued me.”
Swift countersued, and the case went to trial this past summer. The singer emerged victorious and was awarded the symbolic $1 she sought.
“When I testified, I had already been in court all week and had to watch this man's attorney bully, badger and harass my team including my mother over inane details and ridiculous minutiae, accusing them, and me, of lying,” Swift recalled. “My mom was so upset after her cross-examination, she was physically too ill to come to court the day I was on the stand.”
Swift told Time she was so angry she “decided to forego any courtroom formalities and just answer the questions the way it happened.”
She explained: “This man hadn’t considered any formalities when he assaulted me, and his lawyer didn’t hold back on my mom – why should I be polite? I’m told it was the most amount of times the word ‘ass’ has ever been said in Colorado Federal Court.”
Adapted from an original article by James Dinh at iHeartRadio