Amy Schumer reveals she was a victim of ‘grey area rape’ during emotional Oprah interview

Emotional Interview: Amy Schumer speaks of her experience of "grey area rape"
Lydia Hawken27 April 2018
The Weekender

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Comedian Amy Schumer has revealed during an interview with Oprah Winfrey that she was the victim of “grey area rape” by an ex-boyfriend.

The actress and comedian claims that a former boyfriend raped her while she slept and she was therefore unable to give consent.

“The first thing he said was, ‘I thought you knew’,” Schumer told Winfrey during an OWN network SuperSoul Conversations. “I hadn’t said anything yet. I wanted to comfort him because he felt so bad and he was so worried and I just tried to push my anger down."

Reflecting on the incident, Schumer describes how there is a “rage that’s stayed with [her]” and asserts “I didn’t consent, we hadn’t discussed it, we weren’t there in our relationship.”

Amy Schumer promoting her new movie I Feel Pretty on the red carpet
Reuters

Revealing how the relationship was both physically and verbally abusive, Schumer recalls “being thrown on the hood of a car like it was an hour ago” and “running into backyards trying to get away from him because I was afraid for my life.”

The I Feel Pretty star reflected on how she “had a really distinct picture of what [she] thought an abused woman looks like” and now understands that “you don’t choose to fall in love with someone who hurts you and you can be in love with someone who hurts you.”

Loved up: Amy Schumer and Chris Fischer (Instagram/ Amy Schumer )
Instagram/ Amy Schumer

Referring to her experience as a “grey are rape”, Schumer told Winfrey that has purposefully brought up the issue of consent during her stand-up comedy to “make people laugh while they learned.”

“In my stand-up, I would say ‘if she’s asleep, that’s a no’, just hoping that a couple of guys would see that [and know] that this is a ‘no,’” she said.

Schumer was also critical of how young women are taught to be wary of guys “popping out of a bush” and that rapists are often someone “you know really well, it could be your husband, it could be your friend.”

Revealing how she managed to escape the abusive relationship, Schumer said: “It hit me like a ton of bricks one day, like I’m not this awful, ugly, stupid person he’s trying to make me feel I am.”

“He’s saying that because he’s afraid of losing me,” she continued. “I couldn’t unsee it and then everything he said from then on just bounced off me.”

Schumer wed Hollywood chef Chris Fischer in a surprise wedding ceremony in Malibu in February 2018.

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