Fifi Box has detailed the shocking moment she was sexually assaulted by a “very high profile” male celebrity during a radio interview in the early 2000s.
The radio host told her Fox FM listeners about the incident Monday morning when discussing Taylor Swift’s counter-lawsuit against DJ David Mueller, who she has accused of groping her.
Box highlighted it as an example of situations that had made her feel uncomfortable, adding that intimidation stopped her from doing anything about it at the time.
Listen: Taylor Swift had the best response to sexual harassment and it gives us hope. (Post continues after audio.)
“I can say that I’ve found myself, as a young woman particularly working in the media, in situations where I’ve found myself uncomfortable,” the 40-year-old said.
“You could argue I’ve been sexually assaulted, and yet laughed or giggled my way through I because I’ve been scared or intimidated by the situation.
“There was one particular guest who came into the studio… I was 24, 25 at the time and he would’ve been in his 50s. Very high profile.
“He sat in the radio studio and during the interview, he was touching me — reaching over and grabbing and stroking my leg — and then… grabbed my head and forced it down into his crotch. Actually rubbed my head in his crotch.”
Box described feeling shocked as the unnamed man grabbed her, only processing her feelings about it after he’d left.
“A part of you is shocked. Is this guy actually doing this to me? You’re trying to be polite…”
“Our boss came into the studio and I was like, ‘Oh thank god, you’re here to save me’. Our boss wanted a photo with that person. In that moment I’m thinking, ‘maybe what happened to me is fine?’
“It’s when you walk away you think, ‘I’m not happy with that’.”
Co-host Byron Cooke, who also witnessed the assault, said it looked and sounded “wrong”, but that he and Box had laughed it off.
“Knowing what we know now, we would not have accepted that and we would’ve been a hell of a lot more vocal than we were,” he said.
“We were both kids in that situation… In the moment, it was awkwardly laughed off because we thought, I don’t know, maybe that’s what happens.
“It wasn’t right.”
Neither host gave any identifying details of the man, but we hope that whoever he is, he was listening and he knows what he did was wrong.
If you have been sexually assaulted, please phone 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732.)
Top Comments
I was attending a professional conference with over 500 colleagues when a male colleague ran his hand down my back and grabbed my backside while I was standing beside him. I was too shocked to react at the time, but will never speak to that person again. If it ever happens Again, I will report it through my profession's ethics committee. He tried to friend me on Facebook a few years later - what a creep!
In your 20s is not kids, and the male co host should have reported it to higher up.