Actress reveals having suffered sexual harassment from American TV star: ‘They prevented me from denouncing him’

Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph surprised fans by revealing that she suffered sexual harassment just over 20 years ago. She who won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance in “Abbott Elementary”, in September 2022, revealed that an American TV star forcibly kissed her. “This man came in, grabbed me by the back of the head, turned me around and stuck his nasty tongue down my throat. Everyone in the net saw it!” Ralph began.

Without revealing when the episode would have happened, Sheryl Lee also avoided naming the attacker. She only said that he was a “famous TV judge” and worked on the same television channel as her. “I was in a very public place. I was adapted. I took care of my business for the television program I was on at the time”, she explained, who did not call at the time the then former mayor of New Orleans, Marc Morial, in order to report sexual harassment.

Morel, who held the position from 1994 to 2002, supported the actress with regard to the complaint and which would be publicized as a scandal in the entertainment world, but she was convinced to back down and change her mind. “Someone from the network tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Please don’t.’ I didn’t want any negative attention around your show. They stopped me from reporting it,” Ralph lamented in an interview with the podcast “Way Up With Angela Yee “.

The actress also said that she was outraged by the reaction of people from the station itself. “One person saw what had happened and said, ‘It wasn’t that bad, was it? Please don’t say anything, we don’t need bad press around here, it’s a brand new show. Your show is new. Disgusting.” , he said.

Between 1994 and 2002, when the harassment seems to have happened because of the mention of former mayor Marc Morial, Sheryl Lee Ralph acted in the series ‘George’, ‘The District’ and ‘Moesha’.