‘I never had sex again’: US talk show host E. Jean Carroll claims Donald Trump raped her in a Manhattan shop in the 1990s
- In a long essay in New York magazine, journalist claims Trump forced himself on her in a dressing room after asking her to try on a ‘see-through bodysuit’
E. Jean Carroll – who hosted a talk show on US television between 1994 and 1996 and wrote a popular advice column for Elle – made the claim in an essay published in New York magazine.
Now 75, Carroll said the alleged rape took place in autumn 1995 or spring 1996 while she was shopping at Bergdorf Goodman in Midtown.
But a photograph included in Carroll’s essay appears to show her with Trump at a party in 1987.
“Shame on those who make up false stories of assault to try to get publicity for themselves, or sell a book, or carry out a political agenda,” Trump said. “It’s just as bad for people to believe it, particularly when there is zero evidence.”
The president praised Bergdorf Goodman, saying the shop confirmed it had “no video footage of any such incident, because it never happened”.
In her essay, Carroll said the department store told her it no longer has tapes from those years. Contrary to Trump’s claim, Bergdorf Goodman did not say the tapes never existed, according to Carroll.
While a number of women have accused Trump of sexual harassment and assault, Carroll is first to accuse him of rape. Trump’s first wife, Ivana, claimed he raped her in the late 1980s, but later said she had not meant rape in the “criminal sense”.
At the time of Carroll’s alleged rape, Trump was a high-rolling Manhattan real estate mogul and married to his second wife, actress Marla Maples.
According to Carroll, Trump approached her as she was walking out of Bergdorf Goodman and asked whether she could give him advice on a present he was getting for “a girl”.
Carroll said she was “charmed” by the request and strolled through the shop with Trump. She said they sifted through clothes and other items until Trump suggested they go to the lingerie section.
Trump quickly set his eyes on a lilac “see-through bodysuit”, according to Carroll.
“Go try this on,” Trump allegedly told her.
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Carroll wrote that she agreed because it was going to be “hilarious”, so they headed to the dressing room. In hindsight she wrote that she felt embarrassed by her “stupidity”.
Carroll claims what happened next left her with mental scars.
“The moment the dressing-room door is closed, he lunges at me, pushes me against the wall, hitting my head quite badly, and puts his mouth against my lips,” Carroll wrote. “I am so shocked I shove him back and start laughing again. He seizes both my arms and pushes me up against the wall a second time, and, as I become aware of how large he is, he holds me against the wall with his shoulder and jams his hand under my coat dress and pulls down my tights.”
Carroll claimed “a colossal struggle” ensued as he sexually assaulted her “still wearing correct business attire, shirt, tie, suit jacket, overcoat”.
She said she panicked, managed to “get a knee up” and push him out.
“I turn, open the door, and run out,” she wrote.
Carroll said the “whole episode” was over in three minutes.
“I run through the store and out the door – I don’t recall which door – and find myself outside on Fifth Avenue,” she said.
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Carroll claims she told two friends about the alleged incident but never reported it to police. Both friends corroborated Carroll’s claim to New York magazine.
“Whether it’s my age, the fact that I haven’t met anyone fascinating enough over the past couple of decades ... or if it’s the blot of the real-estate tycoon, I can’t say,” she wrote. “But I have never had sex with anybody ever again.”
