The Harvey Weinstein sex scandal has brought back bad memories for singer/actress Jana Kramer because she was propositioned by a male talent agent at the start of her career.
The country star, who initially rose to fame on hit TV drama One Tree Hill, reveals she almost quit her life in showbusiness before it had really begun because of the inappropriate behaviour of a former representative.
"I had a man helping me in the very beginning, when I was 19, and he was like, 'OK, I've done this for you. What are you going to do for me?'" she told Yahoo Lifestyle. "And I remember in that moment being like, 'Oh my God! I am going to have to sleep with this man in order to fulfill my dreams.'"
Jana burst into tears at the thought and ended up driving the man away with her emotional breakdown, and she confesses she would have walked away from her chosen career had it not been for her mother.
"I ended up just bawling, crying, and having a panic attack, and he left," she recalled.
Remembering how her mum had reacted when Jana announced she was giving up on Hollywood, the star shared, "She's like, 'The hell you are!' She said, 'Don't let a man try and take something away from you like that. Be the bigger person. Fight back.'"
The 33-year-old eventually fired the creepy agent, and found a new representative to help her pursue her dreams, but the experience still haunts her to this day.
Jana said, "I'll never forget that... how easy it is for something like that to happen and for me to think, 'I can't do this,' and then they win."
Kramer has since also had to overcome issues of domestic violence and infidelity in her private life, but she has used her voice to address her struggles in public in the hopes of helping other women facing similar problems.
"I love empowering women, especially women that need help and encouragement, to make them feel better and make them feel beautiful," she explained. "I feel like women can be just brutal to each other... So to be able to empower women to have a voice, to be able to speak out and to be confident with themselves and not to have to settle for anything and feel like that's what they deserve, is just wonderful to be a part of."
Fallen movie mogul Weinstein has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 40 women, with his alleged actions dating back over the past three decades. The allegations were first exposed in articles in The New York Times and The New Yorker earlier this month (Oct17).
